Version of Fate Series
by JustAnotherPseudonym
Summary: AUish KiGo: When the sun rises they must go their separate ways and forget the soft touches and lingering caresses. But can they?
1. Vignette One: Your Weakness is Me

**Disclaimer: Disney owns Kim Possible not me.**

**Summary: AUish KiGo: When the sun rises they must go their separate ways and forget the soft touches and lingering caresses. But can they?**

* * *

**Your Weakness is Me**

The sun had not yet risen, but that didn't matter. Light didn't need to break through the darkness for the two individuals covering each other on the bed to see each other. The darkness may have hindered their sight but their other senses had not been dulled. Their hands caressed each other's skin. They took in each other's scent and tasted each other's mouth all the while their soft moans filling the other's ears.

It was a perfect moment that could not have been ruined by anything. No one knew where they were so there would be no intrusion. They had given specific orders to the hotel staff that they were not to be bothered under any circumstance, even if the circumstance was dire. It didn't matter if the entire building was in danger of being burnt to the ground or if the Great God of the Heavens came and rained down His personal wrath on their specific location; they would not be disturbed.

This meeting wasn't supposed to happen. This would have to be the last time.

When the sun did rise they would be forced to separate. They would go to their separate lives and pretend like none of this had ever happened. They would forget the soft touches and lingering caresses. They would forget the taste of each other. They would forget the sound the other made at the height of ecstasy. They would be forced to forget it all.

When they were immersed in their public lives they would have to stop from thinking about the feel of the other's skin. When they sat in their separate homes they would have to stop from thinking about the scent of the other on their own flesh. They would have to stop thinking about how good if felt to have the other's mouth nipping and loving every single part of their body leaving no part untouched or unloved.

Yes, they would stop thinking about each other at all. They had done it before on another such occasion and would be able to do it again. Parting last time had been difficult but they had survived it and they could survive it again.

A single ray of light broke through the darkness of the room. It was acknowledged only by a deep moan that came from one of the figures on the bed.

A second ray of light intruded into the darkness and was greeted the same as the first. Eventually the entire room was basked in the soft glow of the early sunlight and the darkness had completely faded away.

Each of the figures lay on the bed. Their energy spent and their breath coming in soft gasps, they could easily see the other now and took the chance to look deep into each other's eyes.  
"You know it's time to go," Shego said, forcing her voice to portray a strength she knew she hadn't yet regained.

"The daylight came too soon," Kim answered as she reached out and moved a dark strand of hair out of Shego's face.

"It always does."

"Would it be wrong if I told you that I loved you?" The green eyed woman asked not sure the reaction she would get from her taller companion.

"Yes, but I like doing the wrong thing." Shego smiled and reached out to grasp the other woman's waist and pulled her closer to her still overheated body. "I love you too, Kimmie."

"This can't happen again, right? Just like last time?" Kim looked down to the ruffled sheet of the bed. She could no longer hold the gaze of her beautiful companion.

"I'm your greatest enemy." The response was a soft unwanted reminder of their reality. They could not change it, no matter how much they silently wished that they could.

"I don't think it was supposed to happen this way," Kim moved away from Shego, sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

Shego followed her companion's actions and turned away from her secret lover. "Does it really matter how it's supposed to happen? This is how it happened. He got you before I did."

"I'd leave him for you, you know."

This wasn't the first time Kim had offered this and she was sure it wouldn't be the last either.

"I don't think I could do that. It's not just about him, Kimmie. The world needs you in it, and I'm not so much of an asshole as to take you away from what you love doing."

Kim did her best to hide away the pain her lover's words caused her. "I love you more than the world," she whispered.

Shego would have turned around to look into the hero's eyes if she didn't know that she would only turn to face her lover's back.

"I know, and I love you enough to not ruin your life."

"You know your weakness is me. Just like my weakness is you. This won't be the last time." This was a simple statement of fact, mentioned before and most likely would be uttered again. Neither of them could run away from their self-destructive desire.

Shego nodded but knew Kim couldn't see her. "We need to try and make it the last though." Their secret affair was changing them both. They were becoming different in how they acted towards each other and how they acted towards the outside world. It was slowly breaking them down and destructing their well-built and hard-earned lives. Their previous wants and yearnings from life trickled down into only these brief moments they spent together. Everything else seemed to lose its luster and importance, but still they could not find it in themselves to change so much as to give up all they had built and earned in their lives.

"It's hard to really try at something that you only want to fail at." Kim got up off the bed and gathered her clothes that were strewn across the floor.

Shego continued to sit on the bed and looked straight ahead. She knew she couldn't handle seeing Kim gathering her clothes preparing to leave her once again.

Once she had all her clothes, Kim went to the hotel room's bathroom and turned on the water to the shower. She'd have to wash off the scent of Shego on her skin if she was going to return to her husband. She made sure to close and lock the door behind her. There was no reason for Shego to be joining her in this ritual of hers.

Shego heard the click of the lock on the bathroom door and couldn't help but flinch. This wasn't the way she wanted their night to end, but this was the only way it could end. She got up off the bed and walked around the room gathering her own clothes. There was no reason for her to bother with a shower immediately so she just got dressed.

She looked at herself in the mirror but quickly turned her eyes away. She felt a great shame and a great guilt. There was no way she could possibly look at herself in the mirror and feel anything else.

The water in the bathroom shut off and Shego hurried to find a pen and paper. She wrote out a quick note to Kim then rushed out the door. She wasn't sure that if she faced Kim again that she would have the strength to walk away.

Kim heard the hotel room's door close and was actually surprised that Shego had stayed this long. She hurried to dry herself off and get dressed then walked back out into the room. She looked around until she spotted the note she knew Shego would have left her.

_Until Next Time,  
Shego_

Kim read the note a few more times then threw it away. As much as she would have loved to take it with her she could leave no evidence of what had gone on with Shego. She gathered the last of her things then followed Shego's steps out of the hotel room all the while cursing the sun.


	2. Vignette Two: Infrequent Liaisons

**Disclaimers: I don't own Kim Possible.**

**Infrequent Liaisons**

Kim sat in the restaurant dutifully seated next to her husband. It was an important dinner that they were at, one of those that could further Ron's career. Kim would laugh at Mr. Jacobson's most inappropriate jokes and would smile pleasantly and thank him profusely for his comment that Ron was very lucky to have such a beautiful and devoted wife as she. Mr. Jacobson's wife would scowl at her for it, her being the jealous type, but nothing would come of it. They would all play nice throughout the dinner and they would laugh and they would laugh and they would laugh. 

Laughing was always important. Kim knew that if she didn't make them laugh then she wouldn't appear to be witty. She would be deemed unworthy and eventually would be ostracized from the "wife's club". No longer would she be invited to boring lunches where she talked about nothing but superficial things and pretended to care about these other women's superficial lives. Being part of the "club" wasn't of great importance in Kim's mind, but she would go through it all for Ron because he loved her. He really loved her.

After being married for three years he was still doting on her and treating her like the most important thing in his life, but only because she really was. He would do anything she asked of him. He would give up his career and find another. He would move clear across the country if it would make her happier in some way. Ron was a man who believed he found the greatest love of his life and would do anything to make sure she never left him.

That's why Kim would grant Ron's boss and his boss's wife her best smile and her greatest laugh. She was willing to do whatever she needed to help Ron. Her guilt would allow her to do nothing less.

"So Ronny-Boy," Mr. Jacobson would always call Ron, Ronny-Boy even though most everyone knew Ron abhorred the title, "you said your wife was spectacular but I didn't expect to meet such a wonderful woman. You wouldn't mind sharing her would you?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I know plenty of people that could use her services."

"No sir," Ron smiled. He had to always remember to smile. "But the missions KP chooses to take now are up to her. When I transferred to your restaurant KP got a job at the clinic downtown. She's an excellent doctor, if I say so myself." Ron told the older man proudly. It wasn't often he got to sing the praises of his wife; people usually sung Kim's praises to him.

Mr. Jacobson chuckled. "I'm sure she is, son, I'm sure she is."

Kim hated it when Mr. Jacobson called Ron 'son'. It seemed so old-time and archaic to her, reminding her off the good old boy's club that she would have never been invited to be a part of. Besides, Ron wasn't his son. Ron didn't even like the man all that much.

From across the restaurant Shego stood looking at her lover's table carefully. She hadn't intended on walking in on Kim's meal with her husband, but she couldn't talk herself out of it. She would be greatly uncomfortable in Kim's presence, but she would deal with it like she always dealt with it.

She ran her hands over the front of her dress to smooth out some of the wrinkles. When she looked up she saw Kim's green eyes tracing the curves of her body and it made her blush. No one could make her blush like a simple look from the woman she had often called her enemy. Shego smiled and began to make her way over to the table she had reserved for herself, making sure not to lose contact with the wonderful green eyes that followed her every movement.

Ron spotted Shego walking to a table next to them in the restaurant. He was blissfully ignorant of the fact that the woman was actually Shego, however. Shego wore skin paint, making her skin darker and she wore a blonde wig. He was also blissfully ignorant of the look his wife and the woman shared. He was always blissfully ignorant about so many things. Shego tore her eyes away from Kim and settled her sight onto Ron. She waved to him demurely, having caught him looking at her and maneuvered to where she was standing behind the empty seat at her table that was situated right behind Kim.

Mr. Jacobson gathered the attention of everyone at the table again, having also noticed the beautiful woman walking into the restaurant. He stood from his seat and walked over to Shego, and introduced himself. "A woman as beautiful as you should never be forced to dine alone. Please, join us." He motioned to the table he shared with his employee.

"I wouldn't want to intrude," Shego's eyes immediately looked past Jacobson to Kim.

Mr. Jacobson waved her refusal away. "It's no problem at all. I'm sure my companions wouldn't mind. The more is always merrier, isn't it?"

"Of course," Shego smiled her best smile. She had heard of this man and didn't need to know him to not like him. Kim had told her in-depth of how the older man would make inappropriate advances that often left the her lover quite uncomfortable. If he wasn't Ron's boss then she would make sure the man could never speak again.

Shego stood and Mr. Jacobson led her to the table right next to her own. He pulled out her chair, a chair conveniently next to Kim. She took her seat and thanked Mr. Jacobson for saving her from dining alone in a place meant for companionship.

"Yes well," Ron cleared his throat. "I'm glad we could help." He stood and offered his hand to Shego. "I'm Ron Stoppable," with his free hand he pointed at his wife, "and this is my wife Kim Possible."

Shego continued to wear her best smile as she took Ron's hand in greeting. "It's a pleasure to meet you both. My name is Salene." She knew the game they were playing and even though she hated any type of social games she would play this one for Kim.

"Yes well, it's a pleasure to meet you as well, Salene." Mr. Jacobson forced in his own voice again. Shego let go of Ron's hand and her attention went back to the man who had invited her to join them. "Allow me to introduce you to my wife, Allison." At least he hadn't forgotten about her as he had done before. Allison reached out her hand and gave a pleasant nod. Her mouth was curled up in a tight smile. Her eyes roamed over the body of the younger woman who stood across from her and once again could not help but feel threatened.

Shego retook her seat and so did the others. Hardly anyone noticed that Kim and Shego had exchanged no greeting when Shego joined their table nor did they notice that throughout the entire dinner they never spoke to each other at all. Their comments were always responses to someone else's statements. Their laughs were always attributed to someone else's joke. No one bothered to notice, either, how every so often one or the other of the women would let out a slight whimper or a quick moan.

Kim's hand was tracing idle patterns across Shego's soft thigh. The tip of her fingernails would tease the inside of Shego's thigh making the taller woman shiver from the wave of pleasure that coursed through her body. Kim's touch was almost more than she could stand, but she wouldn't remove the delicate hand because she couldn't stand not being touched by the other woman. She wanted more. It was actually to the point where she needed more.

Feigning illness Shego excused herself from the dinner apologizing profusely for her utter need to leave. Kim being the caring and concerned person that she naturally was could do nothing but offer to take Shego home. Ron knew the type of person his wife was and he loved Kim so much for her kindness. With a promise to see his wife later he watched the stranger and his wife leave the restaurant.

Even though knowing the risks they were taking were beginning to be too great, once the two women reached the car they shared a passionate kiss. No longer could they deny themselves the taste of the other. It had been too long since they had succumbed to their carnal desires.

"Are we going to your place?" Kim asked between kisses.

"We can't," Shego breathlessly answered. "Darion's there."

Kim pulled away from Shego's embrace. "Why wasn't Darion here tonight?"

"He just got back in town earlier today and was too tired to come."

Darion was Shego's long-term boyfriend. They had been together almost as long as Ron and Kim. He was a gifted jewel thief in his own right, so was often out of town making it much easier for Shego to get away.

"He's going to expect you back tonight, right?"

"Yeah late though," Shego leaned down and kissed Kim again. She didn't want to discuss Darion or anyone else.

"Get in the car," Kim ordered pushing Shego away. They couldn't linger in the parking lot for too long before they would surely get caught.

With a great effort Shego stepped away from the call of Kim's body and made her way to the passenger side of her vehicle and hurried to get in. Kim slid into the driver's side and started the car. She pulled out into the street trying to ignore Shego's hand which had found permanent residence on the inside of her thigh. She drove them to the nearest hotel, one they hadn't been to before. They had only one rule when it came to their infrequent liaisons; never the same place twice. They were kind of paranoid in that way.

The room was rented quickly and the room found in even greater time. Knowing they had no time to waste they instantly shed each other's clothes and fell upon the bed. Instantly their mouths found each other and their hands reached out to caress the other's skin. It had been too long since they had felt the other's touch and had smelt the other's scent.

They needed this night more than they thought they would ever need anything. As their touches became even more intense they could think of nothing but their own need and longing to be with the other for as long as they possibly could. Only the other's touch could release the fire that built up in their bodies.

In hardly any time at all they screamed out their release and reaffirmed their love. Every time they were together it was always about their love and could be about nothing else. If it had just been the sex then they wouldn't be together at all. They would not risk Ron finding out. They would not risk ruining their own fragile facade that was their public relationship. If they were going to risk everything then it had to be for something more than sex; it just had to be.

Kim had snuggled up to Shego's side. It was almost time for them to go. Ron was surely done with dinner by now and was probably on his way home where he expected to see his wife. Kim's cell phone rang from inside her purse and she left her warm haven to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey KP, I just wanted to call you and tell you that I'm on my way home. Did you work everything out with Salene?"

"We're actually still together. I'm just getting back into the car from being at the clinic. I drove their first because I wanted to examine Salene and make sure everything with her was okay." It was so easy to lie now. At first, it had been quite difficult but now it was just so easy.

"Is she feeling any better?"

"Oh yeah she is. I think it's just the flu."

"Is she going to go home with you?" Ron knew sometimes his wife would take in people like others took in stray pets. She would nurse them back to health then send them off on their own.

"Probably not, I'm sure she can take care of herself."

"Oh, well then I'll see you at home."

Kim closed her phone, and then turned and made her way back over to the bed. She slid back under the covers and snuggled up to her lover.

Shego sighed as she wrapped her arms around Kim's body. She had easily heard Kim's lie and felt a moment's worth of guilt that the younger woman would lie to her husband for her. She never imagined that she would see Kim doing the things she often did so that they could be together. "It's time to leave."

"I'm going to go to Hell." Kim burrowed deeper into Shego's body.

Shego snorted. "We both are." She placed a soft kiss on Kim's forehead then pulled away from her lover. "It's time to leave," she repeated.

Kim once again moved out of the comfort of Shego's embrace and made her way to the bathroom. She would have to take a quick shower so that Shego could take her own. She shut and locked the bathroom door, once again signaling the end to one of their nights together.

Shego sat up in the bed and stared at the door. Not for the first time, she wished that Kim hadn't locked the door or that she had had the courage to ask the hero to not to leave her side.

"This has to be the last time," she whispered to herself as the water from the shower turned on. "This has to be the last time." Shego was tired of ruining Kim's life. One of them had to walk away and she swore to herself that she would be the one to leave.


	3. Vignette Three: Unknown Factor

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible. Never have and doubt I ever will.**

**Unknown Factor  
**

Kim and Lanica had been friends for years. Actually, they were best friends but neither of them could remember exactly how they got that way. After being just casual acquaintances who had met through a mutual friend their relationship had evolved into a great friendship and neither had ever thought twice about it. They were a good match, as far as friendships go. They had the same temperament, the same outstanding presence, the same basic outlook on life, and the same sense of honor that bound them to each other in a remarkable friendship.

Lanica had taken Ron's place at Kim's side when Ron and Kim had figured out that their world-saving adventures put a strain on their personal relationship after they became a couple. They had been forced to admit that they could be either life partners or work partners, but couldn't do both. The love they shared forced them to choose life partners over their working relationship, and Kim had been forced to find another sidekick that would follow her around the world, and that wouldn't care that she was given most of the glory.

Lanica had volunteered for the job after they had become roommates in their first year of college together, and had grown remarkably close. They had grown up together through their college years and knew each other's secrets. They were each other's confidant even in times when keeping secrets might have been best. There was no holding back when it came to confessing to each other their sins and there was no judgment ever given to the confessed. Lanica was one of the few people in Kim's life that never expected the international hero to be perfect.

Lanica offered Kim a much needed balance in the life they had chosen to pursue together. They had a true friendship that had not been ruined over time or diminished with distance or the lack thereof. But taking all this into consideration, it came to no surprise to Lanica that Kim had not shared with her the greatest secret she kept. Lanica knew, as best friends often do, that Kim was hiding something and thought that if Kim really wanted her to know then she would know. Some secrets are better kept hidden, and this secret that Lanica had unwittingly discovered by just walking into Kim's office—an act she had done at least a thousand times before—was certainly something that should have stayed hidden.

Lanica did not want to be the first one to be the co-carrier of Kim's secret or in more appropriate terms the co-carrier of Shego and Kim's secret. This was something she didn't want to know and was something she shouldn't need to know, but for some reason powers greater than her had made her the discoverer of that which was hidden and she now was a part of their long-term lie.

When she turned her gray eyed gaze to Kim's brilliant green she was not in the least bit surprised to find relief there. Finally someone else knew what was going on. Finally they could be found out and not have to carry the burdens of their lie any longer. Maybe Lanica would tell Ron about what she had seen. Maybe she would just tell anyone who cared to know about it. Maybe she would free them.

Shego stood in the room, close to Kim but far enough away to maintain 'friendship' distance. She did this almost unconsciously, so practiced she was at the fine art of maintaining the lie. Ever since Mr. Jacobson had given her and Kim the gift of publicly introducing them, she and Kim had been allowed to become friends. Shego, as Saline, had entered legitimately into Kim's life and had been introduced to Lanica, had met her and dined with her, but she didn't know her well enough to know if she would tell Ron what had been going on behind his back. Part of Shego very much wished that Lanica would. She was supposed to be the self-righteous hero type, and self-righteous hero types wouldn't let something like this go so easily. Shego, didn't know Lanica well at all.

"Are we still going to lunch?" Lanica asked her friend.

"Is that all you have to say?" Kim was disillusioned if she believed that Lanica would react in any other way. Often Lanica was accused of lacking passion, but a more appropriate description would be 'not lacking tact'. The dark skinned woman would not speak before she took her time to think about what it was she could and was going to say. Her words were always very calculated only adding to the importance of them because they came in rarity. When Lanica spoke people knew to listen.

"What is it you want me to say, Kim?" Lanica knew it was always safe to answer a question with a question especially when what she wanted to say would only make a bad situation worse. In all truth, she was disgusted by what she had seen. Her disapproval burned deep within her chest making her want to lash out with harsh words.

"Are you going to tell Ron?" Kim wanted to know this more than anything. Her dread and joy at the possibility was overwhelming her.

Lanica and Ron were nothing but mere acquaintances even though they had known each other for a very long time. Lanica had always understood that a person could not split their loyalties and remain true to both those who they claimed their loyalty to. Kim had already won Lanica's friendship and Ron had always understood that no matter the situation Lanica would only hold Kim's secrets and stay true to Kim's wishes despite the fact he had known Lanica for as long as Kim. He would often chalk their special friendship up to being a woman's bond, something he could never understand. It probably made it easier for him to think Kim's and Lanica's relationship that way instead of the alternative, which was his wife needed someone else to confide in because he wasn't good enough.

"Do you want me to tell Ron?"

Neither women standing across from her could bring themselves to answer, even though it was clear they wanted to shout out that they would want nothing more than for Ron to be told, that they wanted nothing more than to be free from the burden of their lie. Lanica didn't need them to answer her question because she already knew what the response would be if they could just bring themselves to say it. Just looking at them she could tell that they were tired of hiding and were fast approaching their breaking point.

How long had this been going on? How long were they able to go without being caught, especially with the chances they were taking? How smart were they that they could play their game of deceit and lies and not have anyone notice or anyone suspect? Did anyone suspect?

Lanica surely had. She had known that Kim was keeping a secret. She had known that it was eating away at her friend day by day and yet she had done nothing to try and help Kim at all. She had never asked Kim if she needed help dealing with whatever it was she was keeping so closely guarded.

Why was that? Why was it that Lanica couldn't approach her best friend and ask if she needed help with this burden that was weighing her down? Could she have been afraid that whatever Kim would confess would be too difficult for her to carry as well? Could it be that this was the thing that would break Lanica's loyalty?

"What are you thinking?" Shego was bold enough to ask not particularly caring for the silence Lanica kept as her eyes moved over her body.

"I'm thinking that this disgusts me."

"I didn't know you were homophobic," Shego was sure that this wasn't what caused Lanica to be disgusted but it was the only think she could defend with a modicum of righteousness.

Lanica shook her head. "I'm not," her voice was soft. "I'm disgusted by the betrayal of it all."

"We never meant to," Kim's argument quickly died. She didn't have the energy to try and defend her intentions anymore.

"I'm sure you didn't." Lanica's voice was oddly comforting. "No one really ever does."

"Are you going to tell Ron?" Shego brought forth the unanswered question again.

"He called me earlier today," Lanica directed at Kim. "I'm sure you know what about."

Kim did know. Actually, she had called Shego to her office to tell her what Ron had probably shared with Lanica. Shego needed to know and she needed to know before Ron told her so that her reaction could be rehearsed.

"What's going on?" Shego asked her lover gently.

There was only silence as Kim's response. She didn't know how to tell Shego. She didn't know how to deal with it herself. Luckily Lanica came to her rescue. "She's pregnant. Ron is on his way over here with a big assortment of roses. He's going to take his wife out to lunch to celebrate and he wanted me to get you in the same restaurant so that they could tell you together. He's very happy and wants all of Kim's friends by her side."

Well Kim always did want children, and that was something that Shego could never give her. Ron and Kim were married and had been for a while and they both wanted a family that involved children. It was a good time for them right now. They both had great jobs and were very secure in their lives. Their marriage was strong, or so it seemed to everyone including Ron. Only the three women that stood in that room knew any differently.

"Congratulations," Shego was being genuinely sincere. "I know how much you wanted children."

"I would rather just have you," Kim's response was just as sincere.

Well they did love each other, Lanica couldn't deny that. "Where do you go from here?"

"This has to be the last time." They spoke in unison and for some reason Lanica didn't believe them. She suspected this was the not the first time they had uttered those futile words.

Ron entered the office then. He carried roses and balloons and wore a big smile on his face. He went up to his wife and kissed her passionately letting his joy come through in his touch. He was a man in love. He was a man that had just been told he was going to be a father and he was happy. He was happier than he'd ever been.

Shego just looked on with a smile firmly planted on her face. She looked like just the friend she pretended to be, happy that Kim's family was expanding. She was playing the game now and feeding into the lie slipping into her role so easily now that she didn't even have to think twice about it. They would all go out and have a nice lunch. They would laugh and joke. They would appear to be happy, and for right now Lanica would play along.

She was the new player in this game and no one knew what action she would decide to take. There was always the chance she would tell Ron, she had never said she wouldn't. She was the new unknown factor in this game that had been going on and she had the power to end it. She had the power to end it all and ruin everyone that was a part of it. It was time, once again, for Lanica to look inside herself to discover what her loyalty to Kim meant to her. Perhaps, her decision would have been easier if she had actually recognized that the woman she had seen kissing Kim so passionately was their nemesis Shego, but the woman she saw was Saline. Lanica could find sympathy in her heart for Saline where there could be none for Shego.


	4. Vignette Four: Blind Charade

**Disclaimers in previous Chapters**

"I really don't understand at all why you're doing this. You told me that you don't support their relationship, but—and I may be wrong here—isn't allowing them to come to your house as a couple sort of supporting their relationship? You've got to make a decision here darlin' either you're going to actually support them or give them an ultimatum or something. Do you even know what you're doing? I mean, are you purposely trying to send as many mixed messages as you possibly can? How long have you known about them now? It's been three months right? Which means Kim is three months pregnant which is exactly three months that you have sat back and done nothing. I thought that you didn't support..."

"Kelli, you're starting to repeat yourself." Lanica turned away from the woman leaning against her kitchen counter so that she could focus on finishing the dinner she was preparing for her guests.

"Lanica, all I'm saying is that I don't understand." And Kelli really did want to try and understand. She wanted to know why someone she knew to be as honorable as Lanica would continue hiding a secret when a baby was going to be introduced into a chaos that would scar the souls of more than just the unborn child.

"There's really not much to understand. Kim is my friend and I'll support whatever decisions she makes even if I don't agree with them." It had taken a long time for her to come to that conclusion, but she knew that when she willingly chose to become Kim's sidekick in college that they had made an agreement that went beyond saving the world together. They had agreed to support each other throughout life, even if things weren't always as they wanted them to be.

"That doesn't strike me as being very fair. If I do something you don't like you don't always support me. As a matter of fact you didn't support me when I decided to quit my job and live off the land. The way I remember it you actually took the phone away from me when I was trying to call my boss. Where was your unwavering support then?" Kelli moved her hands to her hips, intent on making a point that would drive Lanica into seeing some sort of reason.

Lanica turned back around to face her guest, knife still in hand. "Honey, you were drunk at the time. I didn't think that when you sobered up you would want to be faced with the fact that you didn't have a job and bought some farmland out in the country which you wouldn't know how to farm."

"That may be, but my point was you didn't support me quitting my job." Kelli defended her weak argument, even though she recognized that she was losing their battle of words.

"Do you want to quit your job?"

"Of course not. I love my job, you know that."

Lanica rolled her eyes and gave a small shake of her head. She was tired of defending herself against something she didn't quite know how to defend. "Then why are we even talking about this?"

"Because I think it's important. I think Kim is taking advantage of you." Kelli waved her arm around, getting more emotional about the subject at hand.

"Did you just jump subjects on me?"

"Possibly. But what I'm talking about now is important. I think Kim is taking advantage of you." This wasn't the first time Kelli had tried to point this out. She knew that Kim was a hero and that she needed loyal friends since it seemed the world wasn't always on her side despite what the hero had accomplished, but she was getting tired of seeing Lanica always being the one Kim ran to. "She's able to come to your home with her 'girlfriend' and act like she's in this loving relationship when in fact she's screwing some stranger behind her husband's back."

"This may come as a complete shock to you, Kelli, but they are in a loving relationship." She had witnessed it and couldn't deny that fact even if she wanted to at this point, and as much as Lanica wanted to deny Kim this thing she had found with Saline, she couldn't. "It's an unconventional relationship, of that there's no doubt, but it is a loving one. Plus, I don't think either of us have that much room to speak considering our relationship."

Kelli's brown eyes widened and she took a defensive pose with her arms crossed in front of her and a brow raised in question. "What about our relationship?"

"There's no need to really get defensive here, I'm just saying...I don't even know what I'm saying," Lanica threw a hand up helplessly. "I just know that we have no room to judge their relationship and I'm not going to judge Kim. I'm her friend and I promised not to do that a long time ago."

"No. What do you have to say about our relationship? I want to hear it. You've got me interested now." Kelli's right foot began a steady tapping on the tiled floor.

"Okay. How long have we been together?" Lanica finally gave up on finishing cutting the vegetables and put down the knife on the counter behind her.

"Well off and on, I'd have to say two years. What's your point?" Kelli didn't ease her stance in the slightest.

"You'll see. So okay we've been together off and on for two years. Now, during the course of our relationship how often have we been in relationships with other people while we've been together?"

"I think I know where you're going with this," Kelli's hands dropped down to her sides and her foot stopped its tapping, "and our situations are completely different."

"How really? Matt always thought that we were just really good friends."

"Matt was clueless. And that really doesn't count because you two did have an open relationship."

"Okay David proposed to you. He was completely monogamous and you were supposed to be as well."

"But we weren't together then. We only got back together the night he proposed and I broke up with him very soon afterwards, so again your example doesn't count." Kelli was stubborn enough to deny any point Lanica could make now, but they both knew that Lanica's point had been made. Neither of them were in a position to judge Kim, no matter how much they wanted to.

"Why didn't you marry him, anyway?" Lanica claimed her victory by changing the subject. "He was a good man with a good job. He loved you very much."

"It just didn't feel right. Why didn't you marry Jacob? He loved you and was a man with a good job, as if that really means anything."

"Having a job does mean something. I don't want to be in a relationship with someone who's just going to mooch off of me."

"So if I didn't have a job you wouldn't be with me?" Kelli leaned against the counter once more intent on enjoying the time she spent with Lanica while she could.

"Of course I would. You're my friend first and foremost. You'd have my full support while you go out and search for another job." Lanica said with a smile, and then turned back to her dinner preparations. "I would just hope that you saved yourself enough money while you're searching for a job because loans from me come with interest rates higher than Mt. Everest."

"You bitch. That's awful." Kelli reached out and hit Lanica on the shoulder.

"Ow. I know your mother taught you not to hit. At least she swore to me that she did." Lanica rubbed at her shoulder as she frowned at her girlfriend.

"When were you talking to my mother? I don't like it when you talk to my mother." Kelli started to pout as her mind raced through all the things her mother could have talked to Lanica about.

"Stop pouting. It's very unbecoming. And the last time I talked to your mother was when we went over to her place and had dinner. She cornered me in the kitchen wanting to know if you were dating someone. I think she wanted to set you up with someone, again."

"When will she ever give up?"

"Probably not until you're settled down and married with two point three kids." Lanica sighed and her voice serious once again. "So when are you going to get married anyway? Actually, when was the last time you did date anyone?"

"Weren't we talking about Jacob?" Kelli sidestepped the question.

Lanica wouldn't be deterred. "I don't think we were."

"No we were. You never answered my question. Why didn't you marry Jacob?" Kelli persisted.

Lanica looked towards the ground. "I didn't love him enough."

"I kind of knew that." Kelli responded in the same subdued tone Lanica had used. "Have we ever loved any of them enough though? They all certainly did love us."

"Do you think that if I had married Jacob or you had married David that we would be in the same situation as Kim and Saline? Ever since I've found out about them I've been just wondering..."

Once again, Lanica had made her point and Kelli couldn't find a way to fight it. "I understand," she muttered. "I understand now why you're having them over for dinner as a couple."

"It's just that...you know that could be us."

"I know darlin'. I get it now."

"So Kelli, what does that mean about us?" Ever since she had walked in on Kim and the woman she knew as Saline, she couldn't help drawing parallels between their lives and hers. She didn't want to make the mistakes that Kim was making. In a way, she wanted to be more courageous than Kim and prove that even though she lived in Kim's shadow that she wasn't blinded by it.

"I don't know." Kelli ran a hand through her hair and let out a long winded sigh. "Maybe it's time I tell Mom that I'm with someone. I kind of think she suspects anyway."

Lanica nodded. "I'm sure she does."

"Lanica," Kelli might have understand her friend's girlfriend's actions but didn't think to completely let go of what she though was the right thing to do, even if she found sympathy in her heart for the woman she saw manipulate Lanica time and time again, "do you think, though, that if you let them carry on like this you're really helping them? They want you to tell Ron, right? I mean, they want to stop this Charade they're putting on for everyone, don't they?"

"I don't know what to do," Lanica whispered out her defeat.

The doorbell rang then undoubtedly signaling the arrival of the two expected dinner guests. Kelli wondered briefly how the two were able to get away from their significant others for a night. They probably lied, like cheaters often do.

Lanica had left to open the door and returned to kitchen with a gently smiling Kim and a softly scowling Shego in her wake. For some reason—that Kelli was fully aware of—Shego didn't like her much. She had even confronted her on one specific occasion letting the tall dark haired woman know full-well what she thought of her using Lanica like she did. Kelli had known that confronting Kim would be pointless and thought she could try and talk sense into the woman she hardly knew and was quite sure she didn't like. Besides, Kelli knew that Kim had always perceived Kelli and Lanica's friendship as often being one-sided and in some ways she was slightly jealous. Lanica was supposed to be her best friend, not Kelli's. She probably wouldn't have been as jealous, however, if she had known that her best friend was actually in a intimate relationship with the Kelli, but Lanica had secrets she kept as well and she wasn't about to be so careless as to be caught doing anything she didn't want anyone else to know about.

Shego schooled her features and forced a smile as soon as she noticed Lanica looking at her. She may have not liked Kelli, but she did have manners. Plus, she didn't want to upset Lanica because then this woman who had offered them her silence and might take away this gift she had given Kim and her if she didn't play nice with Lanica's friend.

Kelli ignored Shego's look and focused on Kim. "Kim, it has been a long time," Kelli approached the three-month pregnant woman and offered her hand in greeting. "I kind of talked Lanica into letting me attend this little soiree tonight. We hadn't seen each other in quite some time."

Kim took the other woman's hand and shook it gently. "Well I guess the more the merrier," she turned to Shego. "I'm not sure if you've met Saline yet." Taking her queue Shego stepped over to the two women and gave her best smile to Lanica's friend. Kim was thankful Shego was on her best behavior. Shego had told Kim about Kelli's visit and like and even thought she felt the desire to confront Kelli, she didn't want to offend their host because she liked this. She liked that she could take Shego out over to a friend's house and that they could act like a couple. She liked that Lanica had acknowledged their relationship and at least given it some merit.

"I have," Kelli offered her hand to Shego, "but I'm not opposed to meeting her again." Her argument with Lanica had started over her confessing her secret visit to Shego. She didn't want to keep a secret like that from Lanica when the woman was already under so much pressure because of the hero that now stood in front of her. "It's nice to meet you again, Saline. I've heard you make for interesting company."

"Oh yes," Kim chuckled, "she does."

"That's really great." Kelli offered a genuine smile, already having promised Lanica to behave herself.

"What is it that you do, Kelli?" Shego asked, somewhat intent on finding a weakness that she could exploit in some way because she didn't trust this woman. She couldn't figure out why Lanica would bother to keep her around.

"I'm a professor." Kelli said proudly. "I'm doing my best to corrupt the youth."

"Yes well now that everyone knows everyone else shall we eat?" Lanica asked from her spot over the stove. "I think everything here is edible unless Kelli got near the stove and I just didn't notice." She easily saw the tension that was radiating off of the women standing together and knew it was time to interfere.

"That's not funny darlin'. You know I can cook." Kelli's soft southern accent caressed the room easily allowing the endearment to go unnoticed.

"Of course you can. Didn't mean to insinuate that you couldn't," Lanica immediately responded. "And to prove your cooking skills why don't you open the bottle of wine that's on the table."

And so started the dinner. The atmosphere was relaxing and the company genuinely entertaining, once the initial hostilities had ceased. Shego and Kim had certainly never enjoyed such a casual night together before since their whole relationship was supposed to be a secret, and in fact it still was since Lanica hadn't figured out Shego's true identity. Kelli did find it odd however, that the two women who had been living in their shroud of secrecy and were experts in the field, didn't once notice or mention Lanica and her relationship.

She and Lanica weren't flaunting it, of that there was no doubt, but they didn't hide it either. The brunette found it quite interesting indeed. Maybe it was just that what they were looking for is all they were capable of seeing. They thought Lanica and Kelli were just friends, so friends is all they could see.

Suddenly, Kelli had a new understanding of Ron's position. He wasn't blind he was just in denial. He was looking at his wife and wife's friend and only seeing what his mind would and could accept. She was the only one in the room who gave Ron credit for not being blind but only willfully ignorant to something that would tear him and his life apart. If Lanica wasn't going to tell the man and end this whole charade then Kelli would have to consider it. She swore no allegiance to Shego, and Lanica hadn't asked her to keep the secret. A baby was going to eventually be subjected to this bizarre notion of loyalty and honor if someone didn't just stand up and do what everyone wanted done anyway.


	5. Vignette Five: Expected Surprise

**Disclaimers is Previous Chapters**

**Expected Surprise****  
**  
It was Saturday night and Ron had called a few friends to come over to the house. He also called Darion, who promised to get Shego over there at least at some point in the night. She'd been very busy secretly helping save the world since Kim had taken her maternity leave and was forced to spend most of her time dodging Lanica's quest to figure out who was doing the vigilante work that would have normally been her job to fulfill.

Ron thought it was a good idea to get some friends together and have fun for a change. Lately, Kim had been depressed and worried about the baby, especially since she had almost miscarried. He had been out of town at the time, but Shego was there to take care of his wife and he was very thankful for that. He wouldn't have wanted Kim to be alone in the situation and it was even better that it was Shego who was by her side—though he still had no idea as to what was her real identity. He was just grateful that one of Kim's closest friends could help ease the stress Kim's pregnancy had caused.

A part of him would rather Lanica pick his wife's spirits up, but he knew that she was too busy traveling the world filling the hero's role Kim had undertaken so many years before. Still, Ron wanted to maintain close contacts with his wife's sidekick—thinking Kim would feel better after getting a chance to hear first-hand what was going on outside of their home—so had also called Lanica over. He hadn't seen her in a long time and was aware that Kim and Shego had been having quite a few girls' nights over at Lanica's place; that is before Kim had been forced to limited activity after her near miscarriage. He had offered to leave the house so that Kim could have their special night at their place, but she said Lanica's place was better. She never did give a reason but Ron just assumed it was because she was the only single one of the bunch.

Lanica had told Ron that she would be there and would be bringing Kelli along. He had only met the other woman once and it was in passing, but he knew that Kim had become friends with this Kelli person a few months back. She had called him once and asked him to lunch, citing that she just wanted to get to know him better but later that day had called again and cancelled giving the excuse that she was suddenly busy with work, and then she had never called him again.

Ron had invited another couple to join their group; people that Kim had socialized with less frequently as her pregnancy progressed. Karen and Andy were the other happily married couple. They had been together as long as Ron and Kim and were the first people that the two thought to call when they were going to have a couple's night out. Ron had always pictured them as the next-door neighbors—for they actually were neighbors—that would turn into their extended family. Ron imagined that their children would grow up together and they'd always be friends. They would experience parenthood, marriage woes and marriage highs, middle age, and old age together. Karen and Andy would always be their best friends and their children would end up being best friends, and if the world were a perfect place—like Ron often wished it to be—then maybe one day his and Kim's daughter would fall in love with Andy and Karen's son—giving them the chance to experience falling in love with one's best friend.

He could picture the wedding now. He would walk his little girl down the aisles to her future with a wonderful young man who he had witnessed grow up. Maybe he would have even had a hand in raising the young man being his confidant when it just wasn't possible for the young kid to talk to his father. Ron would offer the man guidance and share with him the stories of how he had fallen in love with the international hero, Kim Possible. Ron imagined nothing but happiness for his future with his family; it's all he ever wished for.

Kim was sitting on the couch ringing her hands together nervously doing her best to avoid the goofy, happy grin Ron was walking around with. It had been well over a month since she had seen Shego. The last time they had spoken was when Kim had been in the hospital during the heart-wrenching torture of almost losing the child that grew inside her swollen belly. Shego had been by her side through it all and Kim could have sworn that with Ron away it was like Shego was the other parent of her child. She wasn't playing the part of the worried friend, but more the part of a worried mother.

That's when they both realized that they had gotten too close. The pregnancy was supposed to divide them, not bring them closer together. Kim's thoughts of Shego were supposed to softly fade and change into that of a distant friend instead of a lover, instead of a partner. Their relationship was not supposed to progress into one that was beyond the physical gratification or the hopeless love that had existed.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn't supposed to be like Ron was acting the happy uncle instead of the father. He had wanted to go to all Kim's doctor appointments, but she had always told him that he shouldn't miss work and that Shego was there with her. Shego was always there with her. She was there when Kim had begun buying baby clothes. She was there when she had begun to redecorate the room the baby was going to stay in. She was there for everything, and although Ron was there for much of it as well, he wasn't playing the part of the father. Kim, even though biology suggested otherwise, couldn't see Ron as the father. She didn't want the man to parent her child, and she felt guilty for that. She felt incredibly guilty for that, but she couldn't help how she felt. She couldn't help what she wanted and she knew without a doubt that Shego wanted the same thing.

That is why they had not seen each other for over a month. Neither of them wanted to play into their little fantasy world any more than they already had. It was time they faced the reality of their situation. Shego was not the other parent of Kim's child. Shego would not be able to be anything more to the child than perhaps like an aunt that is if she bothered to stay around after the baby was born. Kim was married to Ron and carrying his child. Ron was the other parent. Kim and Shego could not be together; it was impossible for that to happen. It would never happen.

Already they had lasted a month without seeing each other and they both were doing just fine. It didn't matter that Shego was overworking herself and that Kim had fallen into a slight depression, they were both fine. Not seeing each other had been the best plan either of them could have come up with.

Finally, they had actually kept to their words that promised: 'this is the last time'. No longer were they going to fall prey to their most basic need to be near the other. Whatever love they had was gone now. Whatever relationship they had developed was over.

The doorbell rang and the guests soon began arriving. First came Andy and Karen, a couple that Kim didn't much care for these days. They were the perfect couple that everyone wanted to model their relationship after and Kim couldn't much stand the sight of them. They had only become friends, because Andy and Karen had thought Ron and Kim were the only other couple worthy of their friendship because there's was the only other relationship that was perfect.

Kim, of course, knew differently so she often wondered if it was either Andy or Karen that were cheating on the other. Maybe neither of them were cheating, it was possible to have a marriage where those involved were faithful. So, they probably had something else wrong. Andy always did seem to drink quite a bit every time they had gone out together. Karen did have a weekly appointment somewhere that she never bothered to inform Kim about. Kim could only guess that it was to a psychiatrist.

She might have been being cynical, but Kim knew that there was no such thing as a perfect marriage or relationship for that matter. Everyone had problems. Everyone. Kim was even convinced that love couldn't conquer all obstacles. If love could, then she'd be sitting in her home that she owned with Shego and they'd be lying on the couch curled up together coming up with baby names. Wasn't it said that, 'with love anything was possible'? Well, that wasn't true. Because of their love they had been hurting Ron time and time again and if the world found out about their love then they'd be ostracized.

Kim was certain that if the world learned her secret then there could be no one she could turn to afterwards. She'd be forced to lose all contact with all of her relatives since she had actively kept Shego out of prison. She had betrayed the trust the world had in her. She had betrayed her family, her husband, and greatly deceived Lanica, and she had no defense against her actions. They wouldn't care that there was love. Certainly, no one would believe that with love everything would be healed. It was this love that would actually tear everything apart. Everything. The nice little cocoon that was their life—a life that was safe and secure—would be torn apart in hardly any time at all. Ron would probably sue for custody of the baby and he would undoubtedly win. He would have the sympathy of the entire world.

So what would their love do for them? Let them stop living a lie possibly, but was that such a good thing. Was being happy and being selfish worth Kim losing her baby? Was this love worth Shego losing her freedom? Honesty would get them nowhere except hand them even more pain.

"It's so good to see you again Kim," Karen's voice tore Kim away from her morbid thoughts. The woman's voice was way too cheery for Kim's taste.

"It's good to see you too," Kim stood up to greet her guest. "I'm so happy that you could come tonight. It's been too long."

If Kim played like she was happy then she and Shego would be the only one's to suffer. If she and Shego confessed to what they had done then more than two would suffer. It was all very logical really: sacrifice the two to save the many. It all made perfect sense.

Karen wrapped her arms around Kim as best she could with the hero's huge belly in the way to give her friend a hug. "I know. We've both been so busy, though. This is my first night away from Kenneth since he's been born."

"Oh, I bet you're so nervous then. I just know that would be so difficult for me." Kim felt herself fall into a routine she started to despise more and more each day. Since she no longer spent any time with Shego, there was no time that Kim felt she could be herself. There was always this routine filled with fake happiness and empty words. None of it seemed real anymore; it was all a show. Her entire life was one big dance, and she was terribly frightened to miss a single step.

"It is, but Andy assures me that he'll be fine."

"That's because he will," Andy's voice called from his spot next to Ron. "I swear the woman is worrying more than she should. I even called my mother over to baby-sit."

"Let the mother worry," Kim told Andy sternly but smiled to ease the severity of her words. No one noticed that the smile didn't reach her eyes.

The two couples chatted amongst themselves until the doorbell rang again and Lanica and Kelli joined the party. Kim had known that Ron had invited Lanica, but she was surprised to see that Lanica was so bold as to bring Kelli along with her. Long ago she had figured out the type of relationship the two women shared and, although she was quite surprised, didn't think that much of it. She didn't have much room to judge anyway.

"Hello Lanica," Ron greeted the other woman with a gentle hug. "I'm glad that you could make it."

"Well thank you for inviting me," Lanica gingerly returned the hug then turned to Kelli and grabbed her hand so that she could pull the brunette woman closer to her. "I know you've met her before, but this is my girlfriend Kelli."

The room was shocked into silence. Suddenly their little party that was supposed to be completely of the normal variety—normal being that of heterosexual couples—was forced to play nice but disapprove with manners still fully intact.

"I thought she was just your friend?" Ron questioned with a smile firmly planted on his face, intent on keeping the mood happy and carefree.

"Ron, when you met her she had her arm wrapped around me and gave me a kiss. How often do your friends do that to you?" Lanica questioned reasonably.

For this Ron had no answer. He had seen it but filed it away as being a 'woman thing'. He tended to do that a lot. "I'm sorry. I should have realized." Ron immediately apologized. "I didn't mean to be rude," He turned to face Kelli. "It's nice to see you again Kelli. I'm glad you could join us tonight."

This surprised Kim. She had never talked to Ron about how he felt about such alternative relationships, but she thought that at least he was going to be very uncomfortable with the notion. It was surprising to discover that he wasn't uncomfortable or at least if he was he was hiding it very well.

"Thank you." Kelli gave Ron a genuine smile then turned and met eyes with Kim. She didn't say anything but Kim could have sworn that Kelli had winked at her.

"Let me introduce you to our friends, Andy and Karen McClellan." Ron motioned toward the two still speechless couple.

"It's nice to meet you both," Lanica walked over to them and offered her hand. Purely by their ingrained manners they took it. "It's nice to meet you as well. Aren't you Kim's sidekick?"

"Yes. Kim and I actually went to college together." Suddenly a question had formed in Ron's mind. Had Kim and Lanica ever been together in the intimate sense? They had been roommates all throughout their college years and surely Kim had known all this time that Lanica was...well that she wasn't straight.

"Oh did you?" Karen pleasantly fell into the conversation. "That must be so nice that you have been able to maintain a friendship so long. I've lost touch with most of my college friends."

"It is."

The doorbell rang yet again signaling the arrival of the final guests. Kim braced herself for the image that would appear before her as soon as Ron opened the door. This was the first test they would go through to see how well they could interact in public now that they were no longer together. Before it had been so easy. They were comfortable with each other and with the lie, so they could act appropriately for the eyes that would observe them. Now, however, they were awkward with each other and could hardly look the other in the eye. Surely someone would be bound to notice that they no longer seemed to be the great friends that they had appeared to be in the past.

Ron opened the door and greeted his wife's friend with a tentative hug then offered his hand to Darion: a strikingly handsome man that complimented Shego nicely. They were quite the attractive couple. Shego stepped into the house and greeted Lanica and Kelli, and then she reacquainted herself with the McClellans. Only when she could put it off no longer did she greet Kim. She gave the shorter woman an awkward hug that Kim awkwardly returned.

"Now that everyone's here I say that we eat. Let me just go grab those platters that I picked up from that place you recommended, Karen." Ron said as he walked in the general direction of the kitchen.

"Oh, you did decide to go with them," Karen called out to his back and followed him to the kitchen.

"What place was that?" Andy asked his wife's back as she had turned to leave and followed her to get his answer.

"Let's go on to the dining room," Lanica whispered to Kelli then grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the scene of Kim and Shego staring at each other. "Saline, why don't you grab Darion and join us. You too Kim. We certainly don't want to be left in there alone."

"Yeah we wouldn't want to do anything too scandalous. Like me taking Lanica on the dining room table." Kelli joked.

The statement grabbed Shego's full attention, exactly what Kelli had intended on doing. "What?"

"Well, we're using this little soirée as our coming out party. I really hope you don't mind, Kim?" Kelli explained. "In case you're worried I'm really not going to be taking Lanica on your dining room table."

Kim didn't mind at all. She was thankful. Lanica and Kelli were helpfully diverting attention away from her and Shego. They were the focus of everyone's attention and would be the entire night. No one would bother to pay attention to the lesser situation of Shego being a little awkward with her.

"Of course I don't mind," Kim waved the notion away. "I'm happy for you both."

All that being said, the five made their way to the dining room where Ron, Andy and Karen had already set everything up. They sat down and began to talk about unimportant things while they ate. Some genuine laughs were had by all even though the underlying tension between Shego and Kim never seemed to fade away completely like they silently wished it would.

Eventually Kim had to excuse herself from the group to go lay down. She had been doing more and more of that since her pregnancy had progressed. Worried about her former lover, Shego offered to go with her and Kim was too tired to refuse. They left the table and made their way to the master bedroom upstairs.

"How are you doing?" Shego asked with genuine concern as Kim lay down on the bed.

Kim knew her ex-lover wasn't speaking about her health. "I'm doing fine. Don't I seem fine to you. Never have been happier, really."

"Ron called me saying that you seemed a little depressed," Shego confessed. "That's why he did this thing tonight. He wanted to surround you with your friends."

"I'm a lucky woman," Kim sighed.

"Yes you are," Shego responded with conviction. "Ron loves you very much."

"I know. And I love him too, really. I just love you more."

"Don't." Shego snapped. "Don't say those things."

"Why can't I say something that's true?" Kim asked frustrated. "I can't help the way I feel."

Shego turned away from Kim and bowed her head. "I know. I can't help the way I feel either, but we can help what we do about it."

"I'm not asking you to do anything," Kim reached her hand out to Shego which the taller woman immediately took. "I don't want anything from you, Shego. I never have. It wouldn't be fair of me to want anything, including your love."

Shego took a seat on the edge of the bed, her hand still lightly clasped in Kim's smaller one. "I love you Kimmie," she bowed her head to so that she was hovering over Kim. "You will always have that whether you ask for it or not."

With Shego's lips being so close to hers, Kim couldn't help herself. She leaned up and kissed Shego with all the pent-up hunger that had been growing ever since they had parted more than a month ago. Shego knew that she needed to pull away. They were in the room Kim and Ron shared for goodness sake. They couldn't be making out on the bed Kim shared with Ron. They would surely get caught, but Kim's lips just tasted and felt too good. They felt perfect against her own.

Shego reached out and ran her hand through Kim's red hair. She had missed the feel of it. Her other hand trailed a path down Kim's body, having missed the curves and strength. She needed to pull away. She was beginning to get too involved and too drawn in by the allure of the other woman. They were going to get caught.

Kim moaned into the kiss. She loved the way Shego kissed. She loved the way Shego did most everything. She didn't want to end it now. She wanted more of Shego. She wanted to feel the other woman's skin. With her right hand she lifted up the blouse Shego was wearing and cupped the taller woman's breast. Shego moaned at the touch and pushed herself harder against Kim's touch.

And that's when they got caught. Lanica knew the two women shouldn't be left alone for very long. She excused herself saying she needed to use the restroom, but immediately went and sought out the two women. Ron had wanted to check on Kim, but Lanica had talked him out of it and Kelli had diverted his attention by asking him a question about cooking; something he was always willing to talk about.

Neither woman had noticed the door open nor had they noticed that they now had company. Lanica didn't know whether to scream at them or applaud them for their boldness.

"Well, this is an expected surprise. If you want my advice," her deep voice filled the room and wrenched the two women apart, "you should really just go downstairs and confess now. If Ron hadn't invited me over here tonight he would have been the one walking in on you two anyway."

"It's not what it looked like," Kim defended herself weakly. "We were just talking..."

"Of course you were," Lanica interrupted. "I often talk that way. Makes people understand what I'm saying so much better."

"Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about," Shego yelled. "You don't understand what it's like to..."

"I understand more than you know," Lanica interrupted again. "You just need to grow a damn spine and end this thing."

"We've tried," Kim spoke tiredly. "We tried, but it's too hard. We've tried at least a thousand times and it's always too hard."

"Not end this," Lanica motioned to the bed, "end this," She indicated the entire room. "End your marriage to Ron," she pointed to Kim then pointed to Shego "and end your relationship with Darion, which is hardly existent anyway. Try ending the right things for a change."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Shego snapped, clenching her fists at her sides. "You don't know what all is at stake."

"Let me tell you what I know," Lanica lowered her voice, "I know that if you don't end this in the next week then I will. I'm not going to play your game anymore. I catered to you enough already. I should have listened to Kelli from the beginning, but I didn't because I let our friendship blind me and I shouldn't have, because if I really was your friend I would have said this to you a long time ago. Grow a damn spine and fess up to what you've done." Knowing that if she said anything else she might draw Kim into a screaming match she turned and quietly walked out of the room shutting the door softly behind her. Hopefully she had scared Shego and Kim enough that they wouldn't continue to do anything behind closed doors, because she was through protecting them.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for your reviews. They are appreciated and encouraged even. **


	6. Vignette Six: Black and Blue

**Disclaimers in Previous Chapters**

**Black and Blue  
**  
Lanica learned a very important lesson: never give a woman who is pregnant and has already been under the threat of miscarriage more stress than she already has. Logically she knew that Kim's great misfortune wasn't entirely her fault, but logic often wasn't powerful enough to overrule the guilty ramblings of the mind and conscience. She had only brought more tragedy to the woman's life and that was not her intent at all. She wanted to make things better. She wanted to help in the only way she knew how.

Things had not been getting better, they had been getting progressively worse so Lanica had decided to take action and for every action there is a reaction. This lesson had not been lost on Lanica in the past and was not lost on her now. Her actions caused a very violent reaction and she could do nothing to take back her words.

Kelli had supported what Lanica had done. She had stood by her side through it all saying that Lanica was the strongest of any of them for actually taking a chance—because Lanica did indeed take a huge chance. She had knowingly chanced losing her best friend by just demanding that said friend come clean and admit to her sins. Lanica wasn't Catholic but she knew that confession did have its merits. Sometimes there was only one way to cleanse the soul and Lanica had hoped she was guiding her friend in the right direction—a direction that would eventually set her friend free.

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, Kim had never gotten a chance to confess and neither had Shego. Lanica had said she would give them a week until she told anybody about their relationship, but it only took them three days to make her ultimatum completely inappropriate to follow through on. Only three days later Kim had suffered the horrible loss of her child.

Tragedy had struck and Lanica could blame no one but herself; she didn't even have the mind to curse the Divine on the matter. God? What does God have to do with anything, she wondered? Fate? Is there even such a thing? Chance? She couldn't understand her having such a horrid stream of bad luck. No. The entire fault of it landed square on Lanica's shoulders because the doctor had said that the miscarriage was most likely caused by stress.

Who was the person that added more stress to the already very stressful situation? It hadn't been Shego. Shego was willing to do whatever made Kim happy. She was always willing to do whatever Kim wanted. It hadn't been Kelli because Kelli, even though she talked big, wasn't going to actually do anything about the situation. She would just sit back and watch what would happen next. Ultimately, Kelli didn't have the courage to do anything except watch.

Often those with courage suffer more than most individuals realized, Lanica understood that. She knew that the one moment spent in the shining light of self-righteous courage fades and leaves only a memory that holds no true value. Lanica's courage incited nothing of importance. Her courage did nothing that warranted even the slightest mention in history books, and her courage had played a role in a life never getting the chance to mature. Sometimes having courage meant nothing. It certainly meant very little to Lanica now.

Faced with a situation where every choice presented to her seemed wrong and distasteful, Lanica had somehow picked to travel down the one road that led to this misery that surrounded her now. Ron and Kim had been denied the opportunity to be parents to a beautiful baby girl. Lanica felt that she had been the one to deny them that privilege. So, she no longer saw any courage in what she had done. The courage she had felt in that fleeting moment—now a moment only in the memories of those present—had faded into an ugliness filled with a new self-righteous loathing.

"Has Saline contacted you yet?" Kelli walked into Lanica's bedroom and lay down beside her somber girlfriend.

Lanica shook her head. "I haven't talked to her since the last time she called to tell me that Kim lost the baby because of me."

"Darlin' I'm sure that she really doesn't blame you. She was probably very upset at the time. It's like she lost her own baby, you know." Kelli reached out and took Lanica's hand. "I think she'll come around."

Lanica drew their joined hands closer to her and studied them carefully. She was intrigued by how her dark skin looked against that of Kelli's soft brown. "Have I ever told you how surprised I am that we are actually together now?"

Kelli looked at Lanica strangely but accepted the change of topics. "Darlin' we've been together for a while." She turned onto her side and propped her head up with her free hand. "But you haven't told me this, no."

Lanica mimicked Kelli's movement and propped her head up as well. "Well I am. If you had told me just six months ago that I'd actually commit myself to this relationship then I would have laughed."

The brunette smirked, "Should I be offended?"

"No," Lanica chuckled, "you should be impressed by how far we've come. I never would have imagined that I'd want to spend my life with a woman who when I first met her told me that I had the comprehension of an amoeba and shouldn't be allowed within a thirty mile radius of any teaching facility."

Kelli bent her head ashamed for her initial behavior when they had first met. In her defense she had been having a bad day. "Didn't I apologize for that after you bought me lunch?"

"I always thought the apology came from ulterior motives," Lanica raised her brow, "I just thought you wanted to keep your job. You really should have known better than to speak to the Dean's daughter that way."

"I didn't know," Kelli shrieked. "How was I to know that you were the all mighty Dean's daughter? You don't look a thing like him."

"Because he's white." Lanica stated easily. "And I'm adopted. But he's still my father and man did you hate him."

"No comment."

"You both adore each other now, don't pretend you don't," Lanica teased.

"Again, no comment. Was there a reason why you brought this up?"

"Honey, I always have a reason to bring things up."

"Yes well that's true. I guess I should ask whether or not you're going to get to your point soon."

"That would be the better question yes."

"Well are you?"

"We've come a long ways since those days and no one had to push us along. We took our time and things worked out for themselves." Lanica's voice was almost a whisper. "I keep on asking myself why I didn't give Saline and Kim that same chance. Why did I need to push them along?"

Kelli could easily see that Lanica was holding back the tears from her beautiful gray eyes. "Oh darlin' nothing was happening and things just kept on getting worse. You gave them their chance, and they just couldn't take it."

"I meddled in something that wasn't my business. I made the wrong choice and now my best friend hates me and Kim and Ron lost their baby girl."

"Darlin'," Kelli's heart was breaking, "I don't know what I can tell you that will convince you that this isn't your fault. Maybe it's for the best in the long run that Kim didn't have the baby now. I mean, can you imagine a baby being brought into her world now?"

"Kim would make an excellent mother and so would Saline." Lanica had convinced herself of this fact. She couldn't help but see Shego and Kim as the partners they were meant to be. They completed each other and even though she suspected there was more to their relationship than she knew, Lanica was convinced they completed the other's soul.

"And that's the problem right there, Lanica." Kelli hurried to respond. "Saline wasn't the other mother of that baby. She wanted to be and Kim wanted her to be, but she wasn't. It wasn't meant to be that way."

Before Lanica could respond there was a knock on her apartment door. She disentangled her hand from Kelli's as she got up from the bed. She told Kelli to stay where she was and lazily made her way to her front door. When she opened it she felt her body being pushed back and didn't have the reflexes necessary to step out of the way of the hand that clasped around her throat.

When she oriented herself to her new position against the wall with her breathing severely restricted, she eventually settled her eyes on the person who had so maliciously attacked her. Her grey eyes met the narrowed green ones in front of her, and she was a little surprised that her best friend's arch-nemesis was attacking her in her own apartment.

Kelli ran out of the bedroom as she heard the violent motion and stopped cold when she saw Shego holding Lanica up against a wall by her throat. Lanica's feet were a couple of millimeters from the ground and it looked like she was starting to turn purple from lack of oxygen.

Kelli screamed and moved to intercept Shego's hold, but was stopped with a raised fist encased with plasma and a threat to quickly end the life she was slowly squeezing away. Lanica finally raised her own hands and forcefully pried Shego's hands from her throat. On any other day, at any other time, Lanica probably wouldn't have been able to simply force Shego off of her by brute strength. She would have found a different way to save her own life. But now, at that moment, Shego was weakened by things that went beyond Lanica's knowledge.

So, Lanica kicked Shego away from her and kept kicking until she was sure that the green-skinned woman wouldn't rise up from the ground to attack her again. She wasn't in the mood for a drawn out fight or witty banter—banter wasn't really her thing anyway since it was something Kim and Shego seemed to share and something she wasn't ever invited to join in on.

"I'm. Not. In. The. Fucking. Mood." Each of Lanica's words was accompanied with a rough full-powered kick that would have probably killed someone who wasn't Shego.

Kelli looked on, now more frightened by what her girlfriend was doing instead of what was being done to her girlfriend. She opened her mouth to cry out for Lanica to stop but couldn't get the words out, and was thankful when Lanica stopped kicking on her own accord. Lanica's body fell down to the ground and she leaned her back against the wall she had been shoved into only moments before.

Cool grey eyes coldly looked over a writhing Shego and blinked absently as she watched one of her many nemeses roll over in pain. "What the fuck do you want from me, Shego?" Lanica moved her hair out of her face. "Now isn't good time and I'm likely to kill you."

Shego laughed mirthlessly, doing her best to hide the pain away from the woman she had greatly underestimated. "I thought you were one of the good guys."

"Lanica," Kelli finally found her voice, "do you want me to call the police?"

"No," Lanica shook her head, "Kim deserves the pleasure of putting Shego in jail, not me." Lanica took her eyes away from Shego and focused in on the woman she had only moments earlier been seeking comfort from. "You should probably go home."

Kelli's jaw dropped open and she was ready to voice her protest but Lanica wasn't in the mood for an argument. Her grey eyes turned away from her lover and focused on Shego's short labored breaths. "Leave," Lanica said. "It's for the best."

Kelli gave a short nod and then left the apartment, killing all the protests she had in her mind from being voiced. Long ago, she had promised Lanica to never interfere when it came to her vigilante hero work, and she didn't think it would be appropriate to renege on her promise now.

"Are you going to kill me in now?" Shego asked as the door shut behind Kelli. She tried to sit up but knew her body wasn't going to be able to. Lanica had probably broken a few ribs, and Shego could only hope she wasn't currently bleeding internally.

Lanica took in a deep breath. She slowly released it as she turned her attention to her hands intent on not following through on Shego's veiled invitation. "Why are you here?"

Knowing that it didn't matter what she confessed at this point since all the damage had already been done, Shego was unabashed as she spoke her truth. "It's your fault Kimmie lost her baby."

Grey eyes widened then quickly closed. Lanica had heard those exact words before. They had been screamed at her over a phone line that couldn't protect her from their contempt. It was said by the same voice in the same angered tone.

Lanica clenched her jaw and slammed her fist into the floor, splintering the wood beneath her. She cursed at the ceiling finally giving her rage an outlet that had been building since the first phone call she had received from Shego about Kim.

Shego's eyes widened as she saw the display of strength Lanica had shown, for the first time realizing that Kim still held secrets away from her even after all they had been through. The hate she already was feeling boiled over and she somehow found the strength to leap up and attack Lanica again.

Lanica fended off Shego's advances not caring that her arms and hands were being burned by green plasma. She eventually got the upper hand with the weakened villain and was more than ready to take away the life of the person who she now understood was responsible for so much of the chaos that had overtaken her life. She wanted to kill Shego and knew it would mean very little the world if she did. No one would ever question her decision and she would probably be called a hero by everyone…everyone except Kim Possible.

So, Lanica did something she never thought she would ever do. She lowered her guard in front of an enemy, and instead of going in to kill the woman in front of her she reached out and laid a comforting hand on Shego's shoulder. "I'm so sorry this happened," her voice was full of empathy, willing to show and share the pain she felt. "I know you feel like you've lost a child, too."

Shego couldn't stand any longer. Lanica's words accomplished something no one had fully accomplished ever: they crushed her. Lanica offered Shego something no one else could give: understanding. No one at the hospital had understood what Kim losing the baby meant to her. All they had seen was Kim's friend Saline offering what support she could. They didn't see the pain she went through as a mirror to the pain Ron was feeling. All support went to Kim and Ron and no one knew that as Shego stood over Kim's hospital bed that her heart was shattered into uncountable pieces.

The only person who could have possibly understand was Lanica, and Shego had done everything she could to push Lanica away. She had come to Lanica's apartment intent on killing the other woman in hopes that the action would ease the pain she couldn't express, but Lanica had bested her. Even better, Lanica had put aside any emotion she felt about Shego actually being Saline, forgot about Shego initially trying to kill her, and had blindly offered Shego her support and understanding.

Lanica held Shego as tears escaped the woman's eyes. She wrapped her arms around Shego's body and spoke words of comfort. She offered what sanity she could to an already insane situation.

Everything had finally completely fallen apart. There was nothing else that could be held onto because nothing was intact any more. Shego no longer had Kim. Kim no longer had her child, and somehow along the way Lanica had managed to lose her best friend. All that existed, all that was firm in this one moment was that Lanica held Shego in her arms and refused to let go as Shego mourned the loss of her child.


	7. Vignette Seven: Breaking Up

**Disclaimers in previous chapters**

**Breaking Up**

Kim sat in the den and waited for her husband to come home from work. It had been a month since she had lost the baby—a month's worth of very critical analysis of her life. She had finally come to her decision and had Kelli to thank for helping her get there. Her life was no longer working for her—it hadn't been for a while. It was time she made a great change because she was now ready to take on the unknown. She would move forward with her life and she would do so alone.

Shego hadn't been there for her after she left the hospital. The super-powered woman had become withdrawn taking the loss of Kim's child harder than most expected or maybe it wasn't the loss of the child that had caused her to shy away in torment, but instead maybe it was her guilt. Shego blamed herself for giving into her desire for Kim and in doing so believed she was a part of the reason why Kim lost the baby. She could never forgive herself for that, and Lanica couldn't convince Shego that it wasn't her fault. So, Shego had stayed away from Kim. She didn't want to cause the woman anymore pain, and didn't want to suffer anymore either.

Shego was certain that what she had with Kim or could have had with Kim was over. She convinced herself that it died with the child since that singular event managed to change so many things. It had unsettled all that had been relatively settled before. One of the most prominent changes being that Lanica could not find the strength to speak to Kim—she was always reminded of Kim not telling her Saline's true identity and hadn't worked through the betrayal she had felt from it—but she did maintain the connection she had made with Shego as the older woman had cried in her arms.

Ron walked into his home with a smile on his face, as he often did. He saw Kim waiting for him and knew that the time had finally come for her to leave. He wasn't a stupid man, he could tell that his wife was drifting away from him and nothing he could do was going to keep her with him, and the packed bags by the door were a sure hint, too. Things had changed since she lost the baby and he didn't know what he could do to make things better, to return things to how they were before. He had heard about how marriages were torn apart with this kind of tragedy and he loathed that he could fit into that statistic, but if Kim needed to be away from him to be happy then he would let her go. He would love her forever and no one could ever replace her, but he would let her go.

There had always been a small part of him that felt he was living on borrowed time after his relationship with Kim had shifted from the friendship they cherished into the romantic one he had thought he could only ever achieve in his dreams. Ron had always felt that he wasn't good enough for Kim. He believed she deserved someone who could match her intensity and intelligence, and he knew he fell short in matching her in anything. All he could do was love her completely and not get too upset when he saw Kim pulling away from him to seek out something or someone that could fulfill the parts of her that he couldn't. He had long ago learned to not take any offense to not being good enough to keep his wife's complete attention, because he always felt that one day she would gather her senses and leave him.

"Ron, I think we need to talk." Kim's voice held the confidence that was part of what made Ron fall in love with her so completely. It seemed that in this past month, Kim had also gotten in touch with herself again. Before, it seemed like she was drifting around with no direction but now she had that look in her eyes that he hadn't seen in a long time.

Ron loved that look, but he knew seeing it again wasn't for his benefit. His body slumped with the weight of his loss that had fallen onto him and that he could no longer push away. "Can you just tell me if there's someone else?"

Kim wasn't surprised by the question. "No." It wasn't a lie. "There's no one anymore."

Ron nodded. "If I let you go will you ever come back?"

Kim didn't want to crush any hope he had left, but she couldn't allow him to have hope anymore. If she did then his hope would become her hope and she didn't need to fall into that trap. She needed to be free. "No," Kim sighed heavily, "this has to be it Ron. I love you so much, but we were never really meant to be together forever. I know that's what you wanted, but we both know it was never supposed to be like this."

Ron didn't know. He had always given them a chance and up until now he had thought that Kim had as well. "Where will you go?"

"I'm going to be staying with Kelli for a while. After that I think I'm just going to go home." She knew better than to stick around. Kelli couldn't keep her at her apartment for very long since she knew if she stayed with Kelli she'd just being driving a wedge between Kelli and Lanica. Kim still wasn't completely sure as to the details, but she knew that Shego had told Lanica the truth. Lanica hadn't contacted Kim since. Neither of them had.

"Home? Kim you haven't been home since we got married." Everything had changed since they got married. Kim had finished medical school and they began settling down to make a family and unknowingly forgot the family they already had.

"I miss my family, Ron. I miss being with them." Her parents had come to the hospital when they had heard about the baby, but the time Kim had spent with them didn't seem like it was enough. She hadn't realized how much she missed them until they were standing right in front of her.

"Are Kelli and Lanica still together?"

"Yes." Kim gave a slight nod. "Why?"

"Won't that be weird for you?" Ron tucked his hands in his pockets.

"How so?"

"Well, I just thought," Ron gave a slight shrug, "that you and Lanica had some kind of argument or something." He had secretly guessed that if Kim was having an affair then it had been with Lanica, but he didn't want to bring that up now. "You could always rent an apartment for a while until you're ready to go home. We can afford it."

"I think I rather not be alone." Kim still had a long way to go before she reached the state of comfortable independence she had had before.

"Well, if you change your mind then call me and let me know."

"I will."

"Is there anything that you need?"

"Why are you being so accommodating?" Kim asked frustrated. She needed Ron to be angry with her. She needed to be the bad guy.

"Because I love you and I understand that you're not happy with me and I want you to be happy. Kim, that's all I ever wanted."

Kim began to cry. She had to ask herself just one more time why she was leaving this wonderful man. Why was she leaving this man who would always be a good friend, a good father, a wonderful partner, a wonderful everything? They had gone through so much together and if she stayed, Kim was sure that they could make things better, but she was also sure that she could never fall in love with him. He deserved more than that, because she knew that if she stayed then she would probably cheat on him again. She couldn't live with that, not again.

A knock came at the door and Kim knew it would be Kelli coming to pick her up. She had called the woman and asked her to come over a little after Ron normally arrived home because she didn't want to stay around Ron longer than she needed. She didn't want to sit around and watch his heart break and certainly didn't want to sit around and be faced with his kindness and understanding.

Ron turned and opened the door—he had never stepped that far from it. Kelli gave him an awkward smile knowing that she was arriving at a very pivotal moment. Lanica had argued with her telling her to just let Kim take care of everything on her own. Her girlfriend had believed that Kim didn't need a crutch to lean on because it would do her absolutely no good to become reliant on Kelli. In response Kelli had just brought up the awkward friendship Lanica had with Shego and Lanica had remained silent on the issue ever since.

Kim and Shego's relationship had had a weird affect on Lanica and Kelli's. As their friends' commitment had waned theirs had grown stronger. As their friends' were breaking apart theirs was becoming even more unified. As their friends' were saying goodbye and avoiding one another they were celebrating their union. It seemed that being witness to love fail made them value their own relationship so much more even though they were tending to a different part of the broken couple.

Kelli had taken on the responsibility of being Kim's best friend, since Lanica had shown no signs of stepping up into that role. Kim had no one by her side who she could talk to and who would hold her utmost confidence and allegiance. Kelli saw this need in Kim—the need to confess and be absolved of judgment—and she was willing to meet it. Her choice had, at first, brought contention in her relationship with Lanica, but Lanica being the overly logical being that she was understood Kim's need and Kelli's response. So, Lanica held back her selfish anger and abstained from trying to deny what comfort Kelli could bring.

"Are you ready to go, Kim?" Kelli asked making it a point not to acknowledge Ron. She couldn't stand seeing such a good man suffering through this drama.

"Yes, my stuff is by the door." Kim pointed to her bags. "I'll just get everything else later."

Kelli grabbed two suitcases and left the other two for Kim. She turned and walked out of the house letting Ron and Kim say their parting words in private. No words were spoken however. Kim walked to the door and picked up the last two suitcases and walked out. There were no words and there was no look back. She closed the door gently but firmly.

Lanica was in the car waiting for them both which surprised Kim because she figured Lanica would stay as far away from the situation as possible. "Why are you here?" Kim didn't want to appear rude, but she couldn't help but ask. "I thought you and Shego were best friends now? Are you just here to spy on me?" Kelli hadn't failed to keep Kim up to date with what was going on between Lanica and Shego, thinking it was best they didn't try to fix things by keeping more secrets.

Lanica raised her brow. "Shego doesn't even know you're leaving your husband. I have no need to spy."

That's when a certain reality finally pushed its way through Kim's mind. Shego wasn't a part of her life anymore. This time their month apart didn't make their desires grow. Their need for another didn't turn into its normal flame of utmost need that could not be tamed unless they were together. Their time apart this time, was cold. It was very cold.

"Kim are you okay?" Kelli recognized the look in Kim's green eyes. It was the very same she herself had carried when she realized she was living a life that was missing something; a kind of something that made her life warm again.

"You haven't been telling Shego what's going on?" Kim easily ignored Kelli's concern. "Why wouldn't you tell her? Does she not want to know?"

Lanica didn't want to answer the questions. Her conversations with Shego were private and confidential, but Lanica did hate to see both women suffer because of their own damned misguided views of what suddenly gaining a conscience meant. "Shego has no idea what's going on, but that's because I don't volunteer information and Shego hasn't gathered her courage to ask yet. I'm pretty sure that she's afraid I might tell her you're happy, so she seems to just be avoiding the subject altogether now. It would seem she wants you to be happy, but if it's without her then she really doesn't want to know about it. She's just afraid to take a chance and ask me anything."

"That stubborn woman," Kim said to herself.

"Yes stubborn," Lanica absently agreed. "So are you going to get into the car so that we can drive happily off into the sunset or are you going to stand there?" Kelli had insisted Lanica accompany her to pick up Kim, and because she still felt she owed Kim more than she could ever repay, Lanica agreed to pick up Kim and drive her back to Kelli's apartment. She had, however, made it very clear that she wasn't yet ready to forgive Kim for the secret she had kept from her.

Kim silently got into the backseat of Lanica's car. Kelli shut the trunk then got in on the passenger's side. Lanica started up the car and pulled away from Kim's now former home. "So am I just driving aimlessly with no direction or do we have someplace we're going?"

"Just take us to my apartment," Kelli answered not bothering to mention that Shego wasn't the only woman she knew that was being stubborn.


	8. Vignette Eight: Drowning Fear

**Disclaimers in previous chapters**

**Drowning Fear**

Shego sank lower in the bathtub allowing the water to cover her entire torso. The water was almost hazardously hot and was doing a good job of relaxing Shego's tight muscles. She was beginning to feel more relaxed than she had in quite a while. This was the first day she had taken off from her recent submersion into Draken's taking over the world plans. She had been overworking herself for the past three months for reasons she only understood. Draken had been fool enough to think that Shego's luster to do his bidding could actually be traced back to something he had done.

So far, Shego hadn't felt the need to correct his assumptions. She hadn't necessarily felt the need to do anything that went beyond the rote movements stealing another super-powered laser required. Stealing was easy and on some level it had always been that way for her. So many things had come easily to her in life, so many things except Kim Possible.

The first time Shego saw the teen hero, she knew that her life wouldn't be so easily simple again. Someone she couldn't conquer or just push away had finally entered her life and despite not being ready for it, Shego welcomed the challenge. She relished in it drawing physical and mental pleasure from trading blows with the young redhead who actually believed that anything was possible.

Shego sat up in her extravagant bathtub and covered her eyes with the palms of her hands. She rubbed at her eyes, trying to dispel the images that hadn't bothered to remove themselves yet from her brain. She was tired of thinking of Kim Possible. She was tired of being plagued by thoughts that were shrouded in circumstances beyond her control.

She took in a deep breath trying to call back up the exhaustion she had worked herself into. She willed her body and mind to become too tired to remember that she had ever known anybody who was called Kim. Her hands dropped from her face and she leaned back in the tub. Her eyes shut tightly and her mind focusing on bleak, empty, desirous darkness.

When Lanica walked into the bathroom she was greeted with the comfortable looking form of her best friend's ex-lover. She was reluctantly happy to see that Shego was taking time out to try and relax. The last couple of times they had run into each other as hero and villain, Lanica had easily recognized the exhaustion and emptiness that had enveloped Shego's body and mind.

Shego might have believed that her physical and mental decline was going unnoticed, but Lanica had noticed. Lanica had been doing her best at letting Shego escape crime scenes without being too obvious that she was letting the criminal go free. She didn't think it would help any if she carried Shego off to prison. Though, Lanica couldn't continue faking non-capture. She just wasn't as good at it as Kim had been and it didn't look like Kim was eager to make her comeback to the hero lifestyle, so Lanica was on her own trying to make decisions about what was morally right instead of ethically right.

Ethics had been kicked aside a while ago and Lanica couldn't imagine herself chasing after them now. The world had bigger problems than a disintegrating Shego trying to steal things from super secret labs. Lanica had bigger problems than that even, but she still accepted the missions that involved Shego because she felt some moral obligation to try and keep the green-skinned woman safe from all the other justice officials that were vying to capture the infamous thief.

Lanica walked further into the bathroom until she was peering directly down at Shego's resting form. Lanica stood there for a few moments waiting until Shego's sixth sense kicked in and informed her that she was no longer alone. When the sixth sense wasn't kicking in soon enough Lanica reached down and dunked Shego's head forcing the woman to acknowledge her presence.

"What the hell?" Shego sputtered through a coughing fit. "Why in the hell did you do that?" She wasn't so out of it to have not noticed Lanica's presence; she just didn't feel like acknowledging it. She had hoped Lanica would just go away.

"Get out of the tub, we need to talk." Lanica ordered then walked out of the bathroom. She didn't feel too comfortable standing in front of Shego's naked form. There were certain boundaries that she was unwilling to cross.

Shego gave Lanica's back a dirty look but got out of the tub anyway. She wrapped herself up in her robe and stepped out of the bathroom. She wasn't going to even bother getting dressed for Lanica, because she wanted to remain somewhat comfortable if she was about to get yelled at, and she was sure Lanica was going to yell at her. She wasn't so stupid as to not realize that in the last fight they had had Lanica had come awfully close to unintentionally killing her with an overpowering blow. Shego knew that if Lanica hadn't pulled her punch at the last moment then…

"What's all this about?" She asked as she ran the towel she grabbed as she left the bathroom through her hair. "I'm assuming you want to get something off your chest or you just like drowning me for some sadistic reason."

Lanica raised her brow. "I got pleasure out of the drowning."

This was a harsh admission coming from Lanica and Shego didn't know quite how to respond. She had expected more patience from her new friend. "Oh?"

"You almost made me a murderer today, Shego," Lanica's temper flared. "I don't appreciate that."

"What's wrong with you." Shego deliberately turned her back on the accusation Lanica had thrown at her. "Is this paranoia coming from Kelli's influence on you? If it is I don't like it. I want the old Lanica back."

Lanica gritted her teeth. "We can't all have what we want, but it seems that even those of us that now can have what we want don't do anything to get."

"What the hell are you talking about, Lanica?" Shego fell into her couch and propped her feet up on the coffee table. "If you have a point then just fucking get to it."

Lanica sighed and threw her hands up in the air. "You know I don't even know why I try any more. You just don't care do you? Is that why you're trying so hard to get me to kill you?"

Shego turned a cold gaze to her friend. "Your fucking point?"

"Fine," Lanica snapped. "You want to play your little games then let's go. I've got the night free because Kelli went to stay with Kim for the weekend so let's fucking play."

Shego hadn't seen this side of Lanica and seeing it now didn't exactly make her happy. Lanica was always the epitome of calm, cool and collected. She was always the sane one. She was the voice of reason. Apparently Shego had pissed Lanica off just one too many times.

Lanica sauntered over to Shego until she was standing right in front of her. She swiped Shego's feet off of the coffee table and took their place. "Let's play now, Shego." Lanica lowered her voice and Shego's body shivered involuntarily. "Kim and Ron are divorced. It was a quick divorce and you know that. Ron has a broken heart but he'll get over it. Kim was in town for the whole thing and stayed even three months after the fact waiting to see if you'd even try to contact her. You never did so she left. I kept quiet during the whole thing because I believed you'd get a fucking spine and would just claim the love of your life, but apparently you're a lot stupider than I thought."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Shego tried to stand up but Lanica easily shoved her back down.

"Of course you don't, because you're fucking stupid." Lanica sneered, finally releasing some of the anger and frustration that had been building within her since she noticed Shego's meager attempts at committing suicide.

"Hey!" Shego's mind and body may have been completely strung out, but she still had enough of her old fire left to at least protest Lanica's treatment, even though a part of her knew she deserved Lanica's harsh words. Shego knew she deserved so much more than what Lanica had thus far handed out.

"What? You angry because I'm speaking the truth now? I've catered to your precious ego way too damn much. So it's time for me to be a bitch."

"Get out of here," Shego pointed to the door. "I don't have to take this from you."

"The only way I'm going to do that is if you pick me up and throw me out and we both know I can take you so you just better sit the fuck back and enjoy what I have to say."

"You can't take me."

"Yeah," Lanica snorted, "whatever. You look so weak and pathetic that Ron could beat you up, and he's not looking so good right now either. You're fucking stupid. Have I already mentioned that?"

Shego just gave Lanica a look that promised immediate death.

"So I have? Then we can move on. You're stupid because you're letting your fear rule your life and that's no way to live."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Shego sneered. "I'm not afraid of anything."

"You can't do it anymore, Shego, because I won't let you. I will not let you continue to use the loss of your," Lanica stumbled over her words still unsure of how to address the loss Shego, Kim and Ron had suffered when Kim's baby had died, "loss as your excuse for never being happy. I can't let you do that Shego, I just can't. I love Kim too much to do that."

"Leave me the fuck alone." Shego was slowly crumbling from the verbal onslaught Lanica was unrepentantly flinging at her.

"You had your taste of happiness and you had years with Kim where you could pretend that you were with her, and you were happy with that. You were happy with being able to sneak around with her when no one was watching because it allowed you to be yourself while not fearing any rejection, but it became too real for you didn't it? You got scared when Kim said she'd leave Ron. You backed away from her. When she was pregnant and was with you, you wanted the baby to be yours and when she was willing to leave Ron you backed away. When she lost her child you backed away. Kim never did. She just never told anyone about your relationship because she truly didn't want to hurt anyone including you."

"Get out!" Shego managed to say in a savage whisper.

"What I don't understand," Lanica went on calmly, "is how you can love someone so much and just let them go. How can you do that, Shego? How are you able to deal with it, because if you ask me it seems that you're not really dealing with it at all. You're just ignoring it and killing yourself by doing so."

Shego jumped off the couch and stood menacingly over the only person who had the guts to confront her. "Get the hell out of here."

Lanica remained seated exuding an air of calmness Shego hadn't even been able to fake for a long while now. "Did I hit a nerve? If I did then I'm happy because I'm tired of dealing with your emotionless facade."

"Get. Out."

Lanica looked at Shego for a long moment then slowly stood. She looked Shego directly in the eyes, having already promised herself to not turn away from Shego no matter what the woman might do to her. "I don't really know exactly what's keeping you back, but you have to stop being afraid. You have to because against all logic and reason, I want you to be happy and I want you to find that happiness with Kim."

"I already think it's too late for that," Shego whispered.

"Don't assume things. I'm not quite sure you understand just how long Kim is willing to wait. She loves you more than anyone she ever has loved or ever will love." Lanica broke away from Shego's gaze. She ran a hand through her hair and released a heavy sigh. "Believe me," Lanica's words were strained. "Kim doesn't want anyone else."

Latching onto a weakness Lanica hadn't portrayed before, Shego took back control of the conversation she felt had been run far out of her control. "You're in love with her, too."

Shego wanted her words to hurt Lanica. She wanted to pierce the calmness Lanica had somehow managed to obtain despite the swirl of insanity that had managed to surround them. Lanica turned back to face Shego. She reminded herself that she was willing to absorb some of Shego's and Kim's pain if it meant she could mend the relationship she still blamed herself for destroying.

"Maybe at one time I did." Lanica confessed. "I don't think anyone can help but fall a little bit in love with her."

Shego could feel the control she was seeking slip through her fingers. Lanica wasn't going to be controlled. She had become too strong for Shego's manipulations. She was forced to since she was the only one left standing tall after everything that had happened. So, Shego was stuck between wanting to know the secrets Lanica held and wanting to shove Lanica off the top of the building. She reluctantly chose to know the secrets. "What happened with you two?"

Lanica gave a self-deprecating laugh. "She chose Ron and I got to be the sidekick." Shego couldn't help but laugh and Lanica couldn't help but laugh with her. "I don't think she was choosing Ron though, Shego," Lanica easily admitted. "I think she was choosing you, she just maybe didn't know it."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know," Lanica shrugged helplessly. "I just kind of think now that she always wanted you. Ron was safe in a way. She had to have known that no matter what Ron would always love her, would always forgive her."

Shego nodded, understanding that Lanica's words were truth. "Sometimes," she roughly cleared her throat, "sometimes I think he loves her more than I could ever…" She caught herself confessing an emotion she wasn't proud existed. She narrowed her eyes and glared at Lanica silently blaming this woman for forcing her to act so out of her character.

She was crying now even, and she cursed Lanica for that as well. All she wanted was for Lanica to leave her alone. It's what she had wanted from the beginning. It was what she could deal with. She was used to people walking away from her. She could handle that.

"Don't sell yourself short, Shego" Lanica responded vehemently once again becoming frustrated with the insecurities that lurked under Shego's surface. "Don't sell Kim short either. I know a lot of shit has happened to you, but damn it, Shego don't waste your happiness. Don't waste Kim's happiness and for fuck's sake stop trying to get me to kill you."

Shego laughed. It was all she could do. This conversation had become more than absurd to her, and damned if she didn't know better, she was starting to believe that Lanica actually knew what she was talking about. "Did you tell Kim about what I've been doing?"

"I…" Lanica scratched at the side of her face, "I didn't think it was my thing to tell."

A silence fell over the room and neither of them knew what to say to break it. Something had finally changed and they could both feel it. The tentative friendship that had formed between them had survived a trial neither of them had expected to have. Then again, their friendship was one they never expected to form either.

"Do you think that Kim could ever forgive me?" Shego finally asked.

"Of course she can." Lanica waved away Shego's worry, not yet willing to see more obstacles in a path she had just made clear. "Just go and get dressed and I'll take you to her so you two can talk. You don't have to hide anymore."

Shego nodded and began to move to get dressed but stopped. "Did you tell her about us?"

Lanica shook her head. "I told what needed telling. Besides, it's not all my story to tell."

"You're not best friends with her anymore are you?" Shego wasn't quite sure why the thought of Lanica knowingly harming her relationship with Kim bothered her.

"No." Lanica closed her eyes for a moment and took in a deep breath. "Go get dressed."

Shego nodded and went off to her bedroom. Lanica just waited and tried to forget all the memories that were hammering through the back of her mind. She had more secrets than anyone would ever suspect her of having and more experiences with Kim than she was willing to admit.

Ten minutes later Shego stepped back into the room dressed in an old pair of jeans and t-shirt. "What are we going to do once we get wherever it is we're going?"

Lanica let out a great sigh. "That won't be up to me."

**

* * *

Author's Note: I know it's been a while and apologize for that, but life happens. I appreciate all your support and reviews.**


	9. Vignette Nine: Midnight Visitors

**Disclaimers in Previous Chapters**

**Midnight Visitors**

It was late at night, Kelli and Kim sat in Kim's parents' den talking about nothing of any significance. Kelli had made the trip out to see Kim when her friend had called her and told her that she told her family about Shego and needed some back up. Kim's parents weren't as upset as they were surprised by the information, that is until they put the dates together in their heads and realized that Kim had been cheating on her husband. In way, they were happy that their daughter finally told them what had been troubling her for so long, but they couldn't quite manage to mask the disappointment they felt in their daughter's actions. Ron was and always be a good man.

The only thing Kelli could offer Kim for comfort was her simple presence. It would take time for Kim's parents to adjust to the confession Kim had made. They had said that they would always love their daughter, but Mr. Possible had made extra sure to emphasize that they couldn't always love the choices their daughter made. It would take time for them to adjust to the news that their daughter was not only bisexual but also more secretive and capable of deceit than they thought ever possible. Whether Kim's intent was malicious or not, she still had lied to her family for years. There was no running from that.

"So are you going to tell me what happened between Lanica and Shego or are we going to sit here all night and pretend like nothing happened?" Kim wasn't sure if she even wanted to know. Kelli had told her that Lanica went to see Shego and was afraid of what could have come from the confrontation. And, although she didn't want to admit it, she knew she was capable of jealousy and- was already slightly jealous of Lanica and Shego's relationship. Kim couldn't quite understand why Lanica couldn't completely forgive her for her deceit but could forgive Shego. She wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but she had lost her best friend and her lover in one fell swoop, and she desperately wanted them both back.

After Kim had left Ron, she had finally had the argument with Lanica that had been brewing since she had lost her child. Words were exchanged that neither completely meant and neither could completely forgive. Kim had abandoned Lanica in their world-saving partnership and had even accused her friend of intentionally sabotaging her life, even though she couldn't quite back up her accusation when Lanica asked her to do so.

Simply put, they had been too angry to communicate anything but their anger. Kim was still angry that Shego had chosen to talk to Lanica and hadn't bothered to contact her. She was jealous that she had lot her best friend and her lover to each other, even though she knew their relationship was sexual. Kim didn't want to be that petty, but she couldn't help it. In a way, she felt like she had been forced to suffer more than anyone else, and that childlike voice that still existed in her screamed out the injustice more often than she wanted to admit.

Kelli let out a low groan then a soft snort. "Well, that relaxing I was hoping for is over," she said to herself and then turned her attention to Kim. Lanica had offered to tell Kim what was going on, but Kelli figured that would be difficult since Lanica and Kim weren't on entirely friendly terms anymore.

"You don't have to tell me," Kim forced herself to say. "Neither of them are any of my business anymore."

"Sometimes, Kimberly Possible, I think you're the stupidest person I've ever met." Kelli said softly. "You have everyone falling at your feet and don't even bother to notice."

"What are you," Kim stumbled over her words, "what are you talking about?"

Kelli shook her head. "I don't know." She bowed her head but quickly forced herself to meet Kim's gaze again. "It doesn't matter." She took a deep breath. "What does matter is that Lanica is helping Shego get through some stuff so that you two can be together again."

"Why?" Kim whispered. "Why would she want to do that?"

"Because despite everything, they both still love you." Kelli turned away and then quickly stood up so that she could start moving around. "Lanica wants to see you happy and she's convinced herself that Shego will make you happy."

"She's just deciding this for me?" Kim asked more harshly than she intended. "What if I don't want to be with Shego anymore?"

Kelli laughed softly. "If you still didn't want to be with Shego then you wouldn't have told your parents about her. Why go through that pain if Shego wasn't still important to you?"

"I…" Kim immediately began to defend her actions but quickly closed her mouth when she realized that Kelli made a very good point. She couldn't deny Kelli's words, and there was no reason to. Things were already so complicated already; there was no reason for Kim to lie about something that was already obviously apparent.

"Lanica is going…" Kelli stopped speaking when she noticed a car pulling into the driveway. Curious, she walked over to the window and saw two women step out of a car she couldn't quite identify. They were both fairly tall but that's where their similarities ended. The one that had stepped out of the driver's side of the vehicle was dark-skinned and had a round face that was house to surprisingly gray eyes. The other woman had lighter features yet still held a dark appearance that complimented the other woman nicely and they made quite a pair. Kelli wondered if the two realized how intimidating they could be together.

Lanica knocked on the door and wasn't surprised that Kelli answered.

"Hey," Lanica stepped forward and brought Kelli into a gentle hug. "I'm sorry that we're here so late but we kind of couldn't make it before now."

Before Kelli had a chance to respond Kim came storming in from the den and stood toe to toe with her now former sidekick. They looked each other over quickly, but nothing came of it because Lanica didn't want to fight anymore. She had already had a rough trip with Shego and was too tired. She glanced behind her and once seeing Shego hiding in the safety of her shadow, Lanica sidestepped and let Kim's eyes pierce Shego instead.

Shego took a very small step forward, "Hi Kimmie."

When Kim didn't say anything, Shego took another step forward. "I'm not sure how to do this but…" she looked at Lanica and Kelli, not at all comfortable with having witnesses to attest to how weak she was acting and how pathetic she sounded, but she knew that this may very well be her only chance to say anything to Kim ever again and she didn't want to waste this final chance. "I don't want the past to matter anymore," she confessed, "What matters is that I get the chance to talk to you and to apologize to you and to take you in my arms and never let you go." She stepped up to Kim and opened up her arms.

After one tension filled moment, Kim flew into Shego's arms and wrapped herself tightly around the woman she had wanted a hug from ever since she was released from the hospital all those months ago. "Baby," she whispered the only word capable of escaping her tightened throat.

Lanica watched the two women embrace and spared Kelli a brief glance then turned to step out of the still open door, but Kim's mother's voice stopped her. "What is going on here?"

Kim's mother had watched the events in her home with an academic interest at first, marveling at the odd interaction between these women, but she no longer was satisfied with studying them, she wanted to know what was going on. The knock at her front door so late at night had been a surprise, but she wasn't expecting this. Kim had said that her relationship with Shego had ended.

Kim reluctantly pulled away from Shego's embrace and turned an apologetic look to her mother. "I'm sorry, Mom. I promise that I'll tell you everything just not now, okay?" Kim didn't want to deal with her mother she only wanted to be with Shego.

Not doing much in trying to hide her disappointment Kim's mother reluctantly nodded her head. "Fine. I'm going to go tell your father that there isn't an emergency. You can tell me everything in the morning." She turned around to begin her walk back to her bedroom and took a few steps before turning around. "Are you all going to be staying in my home tonight?"

"No." Kim and Lanica responded at the same time. They both understood that Kim's parents' house probably wasn't the best place to make amends. "There's a hotel," Lanica quickly added, "I've booked us all rooms there."

"Okay," Mrs. Possible nodded. "Call us in the morning, Kimberly." She told her daughter and then made her way back to her bedroom. She wasn't prepared to deal with her daughter's secrets just yet.

Kim, Shego, Lanica and Kelli all left the house together and silently rode to the hotel. They settled in two different rooms. Lanica fell immediately onto the bed in her room with Kelli and curled up to go to sleep. She didn't want to talk about what had happened between her and Shego. She didn't want to think about what might happen between her and Kim, but Kelli did deserve to know some of the details.

"I yelled and Shego eventually listened," Lanica quickly explained. "There's really not that much to tell. We eventually got in the car and I drove her to the greatest love of her life."

Lanica sat up and looked directly into her girlfriend's eyes. "What did you tell Kim I did?"

"The truth," Kelli replied softly. "I told her you were helping Shego."

Lanica's chuckles were unexpected. "Bet she wasn't completely happy about that."

"No," Kelli whispered, "she wasn't. But she should have been."

"I'm just trying to find a happy ending," Lanica closed her eyes.

Kelli lay back on the bed and curled up next to her girlfriend. "We all are."


	10. Vignette Ten: Reclaiming Dawn

**Disclaimers in previous chapters**

**Reclaiming Dawn**

"I can't believe she came after you," Kim whispered as she lay in Shego's embrace.

At first, they didn't bother with talking about what had happened in the past. They couldn't even bring themselves to talk about what had happened moments before with Lanica. All they did, all they could do and all they wanted to do was hold each other if only to prove that the other was real instead of another memory that would eventually fade.

"I can," Shego responded dismissively. She owed Lanica more than she was willing to admit to.

"She saw your pain better than I did," Kim tugged on Shego's shirt. "She understood it better."

"I didn't want you to think I was weak." Shego softy admitted.

"Burying your pain made you walk away from me," Kim said in a tone that reminded Shego of a small frightened child.

Shego reached out and caressed Kim's cheek with the palm of her hand. "And that was a mistake. It was the biggest mistake of my life, but that still doesn't make me want to unbury everything that's been said and done and taken care of. I hate to say this," Shego took her eyes away from Kim, "but this is my thing to deal with. It doesn't have to do with you."

"Why?" Kim asked weakly.

"Why what?"

"Why are you still afraid to let me in?"

Shego couldn't help but chuckle, not because she found humor in the conversation but because she had no idea where to start. She had no idea what she could say that would change the pain Kim had already suffered.

"I'm doing the best I can," Shego began to explain slowly, "but I can't change overnight. Sometimes, I wish I could. I think how much better it would be for you. I've always thought you'd be better without me. You've always been safer without me."

"No," Kim whispered softly, "I love you so that means I'll endure anything with you…for you." Kim knew that Shego loved her. She never did question that, not even when Shego had disappeared after the loss of her child. She had always hoped that Shego would return to her, and she had promised herself that when it happened that it would be enough. She didn't want to ask Shego for explanations. She wasn't sure what would be gained from it.

Shego closed her eyes and rested her head on Kim's shoulder. She reveled in the joy and pain that being back with Kim brought to her senses. "I don't want to leave again."

They were both too tired, too worn out to start over-thinking the situation they had immersed themselves into. The dawn would be coming in a few hours and Kim's mother was expecting her daughter to show up prepared with explanations that didn't yet exist. The world would be waiting for them to come out of hiding, because Kim was still supposed to be the hero and Shego was still supposed to be the villain.

To everyone else, this thing between them was simple. It was black and white and had been for years. No one had known the truth and no one had bothered to look at the different colored shades that surrounded the women's lives.

"I want to make this work," Kim ran her finger's through her lover's dark hair. "I want it more than anything."

"So do I," Shego admitted with a surprising amount of ease.

"What happens next?" Kim asked; her own eyes now closed. "What happens when everyone figures out I'm not the hero they thought I was?"

Shego pulled herself closer into Kim's body. "You never said you were perfect." Shego's response was surprisingly simple. Kim had always done her best to do the impossible and it just so happened that more than often she succeeded, but she had never once proclaimed herself to be more than she actually was. Others had made that mistake. Others had believed that Kim was immune to the simple infection of humanity.

"It's over for me," Kim realized. "I'm done being a hero."

"I'm sorry, Kim." Shego had never wanted to take Kim away from the world. She had never wanted to be that selfish, but when she looked deep down into her heart she knew that she was that selfish. She would take Kim away from the world and live with the guilt that came with it. Shego knew that she could appreciate Kim more than the world ever could.

"Don't be," Kim leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on Shego's forehead. "It's a decision I should have been brave enough to make a long time ago," she added as she pulled away.

Shego never was the type that could put words together into meaningful strings of sentences that accurately reflected her emotions. She had more often used her fists instead of her words. Even when she had first realized her feelings for Kim, she still used the fighting as a way to be closer to the young woman who had beaten her in no way any other had accomplished. But, there was something she desperately wanted Kim to know: "You've always been my superhero."

She sat up and maneuvered herself so that she was looking into Kim's eyes. "You've always been the one person who I could talk to and who understood everything I said and meant and felt. I've always admired you and nothing will ever change that."

Kim reached out and pulled Shego on top of her. "Thank you," she managed to choke out through her tears.

Shego pulled away slightly and ran her hand down the side of Kim's face. "It's always surprised me that you don't hate me, after everything I've done to you."

"Don't…" Kim started but was quickly interrupted by Shego's more forceful voice.

"I was so sure that you'd eventually hate me that I gave myself permission to not ever take what we had seriously. Then, I realized the mistake I had made and knew it was too late. You were having Ron's child. You weren't going to leave him. I couldn't ask you to. But once again you proved you were braver than me," Shego smiled self-deprecatingly. "You made the child my own."

"It doesn't matter anymore." Kim hurried to say. "None of it matters." She glanced over at the window, not able to see any light peeking through the curtains yet. "It's not quite dawn yet."

Shego's brow scrunched in confusion and she couldn't help but follow Kim's gaze. As she looked at the window, her confusion left her. They had always tried to hide away from the sun since the night was the only time they could be together. It was the only time they could sneak away from their separate lives without suspicions following them around.

Even now, they were hiding away together having fled into the cover of the night from Kim's parents. Lanica and Kelli had left them alone, needing to resolve their own issues.

"When the sun comes up," Kim whispered, "it will be different this time. We won't run away from each other."

"Okay," Shego leaned down further so that her lips were just barely separate from Kim's. "I love you."

"Good," Kim closed the distance that separated them. She brushed her lips against Shego's slowly at first but quickly became more insistent. It had been too long since she had last been able to taste her lover's lips and relished in the chance to do so now. Her arms wrapped around Shego's back, drawing Shego closer into her.

They quickly lost themselves into each other. Each touch meaning more than the one before it, each bringing them closer to the place they always wanted to be. They reclaimed the other's body as their own possession, making silent promises to never let go again.

It took hours before they were even partially satiated. The dawn had come and left and nothing had forced them to part. Kim was laying face down on the white cotton sheet that had somehow remained attached to the bed, her head resting against a pillow. Her red hair was spread out haphazardly around her face. Shego's breasts rested against Kim's back. Her knee rested between Kim's parted legs.

Shego looked down at Kim's blissful expression and couldn't help but lean down and kiss her lover's neck. "Good morning," her throat was too raw to manage anything more than a hoarse whisper.

Kim sighed happily. "I like greeting the morning with you."

The dark haired woman chuckled softly as she pressed her knee teasingly against Kim's center. "Yeah, me too."

The previous night, their lovemaking had been about reuniting. This morning's was about promises. It was about the future neither of them had allowed themselves to dream of before that was now being offered to them. People were waiting for them to emerge from their nighttime haven, but their lives weren't about other people anymore.

It wasn't about Ron anymore. It wasn't about Lanica or Kelli and wasn't about Kim's family. It wasn't about the rest of the world. Finally, it was just about them. It was about what they wanted and needed from each other. The rest would come later.

Shego's hand ran up Kim's back, over the smaller woman's shoulder then down her breast. It only stopped its exploration when it reached Kim's hand and then the fingers tangled with Kim's. Kim drew their joined hands to her chest.

The morning sunlight broke through the curtains covering the solitary window and the light spread to the bed. Their skin soaked in the warm sunlight, forcing the sweat on their bodies to glisten in the morning air. Neither of them noticed any of this, because they no longer worried about running away from the light that came with the morning.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, there's only going to be one more chapter after this one. Hope you've enjoyed it so far. Don't be afraid to let me know what you think. **


	11. Vignette Eleven: A Happy Ending

**Disclaimers in Previous Chapters**

**A Happy Ending**

Like most front paged scandals, Kim's didn't last long. Public attention shifted away from the famous hero Kim Possible and her public lover Shego to some celebrity who had crashed his car into a convenience store after a night of drinking. In a little under six months, hardly anyone could remember the details of Kim Possible announcing that she was in a lesbian relationship.

No one even really noticed when Kim Possible officially retired from gallivanting around the world in order to save it. She had been missing from that facet of the world for so long already that people were used to not seeing her in it. It had been ironically an anticlimactic time in Kim's life.

Kim's parents accepted her relationship with Shego as much as they could accept any of the choices their daughter made that they didn't fully understand. They accepted Shego as much as they ever had before, and made a special effort to not point out to their daughter that the woman she now shared a life with did at one time try to kill her on a weekly basis. They saw no point in arguing with their daughter since they had never managed to win an argument with Kim yet. They hadn't even been able to talk her out of marrying Ron, something they knew was a mistake well before the nuptials.

Things had somehow worked themselves out and Kim often made a point of not thinking about all that had happened and all the people that had been hurt so that she could get her happy ending. She wasn't yet sure how she could adequately apologize to Ron for misleading him for so long.

Kim had given Ron the courtesy of a phone call before she announced her relationship with Shego to the world. She had filled him in on some of the details of what had happened between her and Shego while she had still been married to him. She had wanted to prepare him for the tabloids that would hunt him down and badger him with questions about his ex-wife. Ron had only thanked Kim for letting him know what was going on before he had hung up.

That, perhaps, was the first time Kim had fully realized that she had truly lost her childhood friend for good. Ron was moving on with his life and he hadn't made an effort to try and include Kim in his future. As supportive as he had always been, he hadn't yet forgiven Kim for making him look like the clueless buffoon so many others had accused him of being.

Lanica had also gotten out of the world-saving business and had joined up with Global Justice as a special agent. She worked on classified cases that she couldn't discuss with anyone and Kim had been silently jealous of Lanica's independent success. Kim had always liked to think that Lanica in some way needed her, but the simple truth was that Lanica could survive without Kim. The public seemed to be even more drawn in by Lanica's dark heroic visage than they had been by Kim's All-American Girl image.

Everyone had moved on and everything had changed. Nothing was the same and nothing would ever be like it used to be, but ultimately Kim didn't mind the changes at all. Things had happened that she might never fully forgive herself for, but she was happy for the first time in a long time.

"I'm glad she finally decided to take my advice," Kelli stood looking outside the den window of Shego's and Kim's house. She was watching Lanica and Shego roll around in the snow-covered ground. They were sparring and it appeared as though both of them would rather acquire hypothermia than concede defeat to get out of the cold.

"What advice was that?" Kim asked from behind her friend.

"I told her to ask Shego to join her unit at Global Justice."

"Technically," Kim moved next to Kelli and joined in watching the two women outside, "it was Shego who asked to join."

"It's weird them being partners now, don't you think?"

Kim crossed her arms across her chest. "Yeah it is, but neither of them was made to integrate into normal life."

"And you were?" Kelli raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"No," Kim smiled self-consciously. "I wasn't made for normal life either, but right now I'm interested in doing other things with my life." She uncrossed her arms and ran both her hands down her protruding belly.

Kelli smiled brightly at her friend, thankful that Kim and Shego were going to get another chance at becoming parents. She then turned her attention back to the women outside and laughed when she noticed that Shego's and Lanica's sparring session had somehow turned into a snowball fight. "I've never seen either one of them like this."

"Shego will get this way occasionally. I think it's hard for her to let go and Lanica can bring that out in her."

"And you're one to talk about letting go?"

Kim turned away from the window. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You've been coiled so tightly lately that I'm not even sure where my friend went."

Kim opened her mouth to respond but snapped it shut when she couldn't even think of how to deny Kelli's claim. "It's been a hard time," she opted to say instead. "We told Ron about the pregnancy so that he doesn't hear about it in the news somewhere and he's not that happy about it. It hurt him."

"You must have expected his reaction."

"Doesn't make it any easier."

"Didn't say it should."

"Shego's been…kind of anxious, too."

"Because of the baby?"

"I think we're both afraid of history repeating itself."

"Try not to think about it too much. It's time for you to be happy, the both of you."

Kim nodded.

"What's going on in here?" Shego called as she entered the house, snow falling from her hair and clothes. "I'd say by the looks of things that you were talking about me."

"Is there anything or anyone else to talk about?" Kelli winked.

"Well you could be talking about me," Lanica feigned hurt. "I am just as important if not more important than her."

"Of course you are darlin'." Kelli smiled.

Lanica shook her head. "I don't believe you."

"Awe baby are you feeling left out? If it makes you feel any better then we talked about you too." Kelli gave a mischievous smile that dared Lanica to respond.

"I'm smarter than that so I'll just say that whatever you talked about, I don't want to know."

"Smart girl." Shego said from beside her friend. "I see that you've finally learned something from Kelli."

Lanica's eyes narrowed. "And because I'm in such a benevolent mood I won't respond to that and will pretend like you said nothing."

"You're afraid. I can understand that." Shego replied with a fixed look of understanding on her face.

"Afraid of what? You?" Lanica snorted. "You're about as scary as a baby kitten."

"Kitten my ass," Shego said before she pounced unexpectedly onto Lanica's back. Not ready to take on the extra weight Lanica's legs buckled and both women fell to the floor. Kelli and Kim sat back and watched in awe. Neither had seen either of their partners so playful. Each of them quickly realized that this is what happiness looked and felt like.

"Damn you," Lanica gasped out. She was pinned to the floor by Shego's weight. "Get the hell off my back."

"Take back the kitten comment." Shego ordered.

"Get the hell off my back." Lanica said more forcefully.

"Take back the kitten comment." Shego ordered once more.

"Get the hell off my back." Lanica responded again.

"Children. Children" Kim stepped in before Shego could make her childish plea once more. "Please behave yourselves."

"I will when she does." Lanica called out as she tried futilely to remove Shego from her back.

"Hey!" Shego snapped. "You take that back."

"Get off me." Lanica demanded. "Then I'll take it back."

Kim opened her mouth to try and break up the fight once more but Kelli stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Don't," she whispered, "I think Lanica's going to win this."

"I don't think so," Kim snorted. "Shego's got her pinned."

"No. No. Lanica is going to win this." Kelli insisted.

Kim looked to the floor where Lanica was still trying to buck Shego off of her back with no success. "Wanna bet?"

"How much?"

"Fifty bucks that Shego gets Lanica to take back the comment before Lanica can get her off."

Kelli stuck out her hand for Kim to take. "Okay."

They both turned their attention back to the women on the floor. Unexpectedly, Lanica had achieved removing Shego from her back and was rolling in the opposite direction she had thrown Shego. Shego was sprawled out on the floor her feet sticking up in the air. In making the bet both women had missed the action.

"Damn it Shego, I think you broke my back." Lanica said as she slowly stood up.

"If you're moving you're not broken," Shego mumbled. "And I think you broke my butt."

"I win." Kelli said as she moved over to her girlfriend. "You just won me fifty bucks honey." She reported proudly.

"I won you nothing. I won myself fifty bucks."

Kelli narrowed her eyes and was going to say something but was forestalled by Lanica's forefinger gently pressing against her lips. "Not one word. You didn't have to break your back."

Kim helped Shego off of the ground and brushed of her partner's butt thoroughly checking for any real injury. When she noticed Kelli and Lanica were watching her avidly she stopped and stepped away. Shego only kept an amused expression on her face. "Honey you owe Kelli fifty bucks." She mentioned casually as she walked to the kitchen.

Shego rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"You'll get the bill in the mail," Kelli patted Shego on the arm as she glided past and followed Kim into the kitchen, effectively leaving Shego and Lanica alone.

Shego turned to Lanica. Her expression serious and her mood shifted from the playful one moments before. Before she could speak Lanica took one step closer to her.

"I don't want to share lengthy platitudes about how much we've overcome and how lucky we both are. Things have changed and they've been good changes. Let's just say that things are fine now."

Shego nodded. "Things have changed. But a lot of things are still the same."

"Hey, are you two ready to eat or are you not done playing yet?" Kelli asked sticking her head out of the doorway to the kitchen. "Some of us are hungry."

"Yeah," Kim added. "Some of us are eating for two now."

"We're coming." Lanica called back then turned to face Shego again. "Come on, partner. We can't stand out here forever, and you said that Kim promised this time her cooking would be edible."

Shego nodded. She watched her friend walk to the kitchen and muttered under her breath, "Thank you for not letting me run away from happiness."

**

* * *

**

**Author's Note: Okay, so that's the end. Thank you for reading.**


End file.
